Our Child
by Domenic
Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member--as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon.... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. Will contain some elements of Adventure seasons
1. prologue

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member--as an egg. They must contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony.... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from Adventure 01 and 02.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

prologue

_After they had found their new friend and helped bandage him (he was able to do a lot himself too, so they hadn't needed to get their parents yet), Ai and Mako asked where he came from._

_Impmon shrugged, ruffling some of the blankets wrapped around him. "The Digital World."_

_"Are you gonna go back there?"_

_"Wasn't planning to."_

_"What about your mommy and daddy?"_

_Green eyes blinked at the Twins. "What are those?"_

_Now Ai and Mako blinked at him. They turned to each other, before Ai took it upon herself to explain, "Well, mommy is a lady and daddy's a man, and they tell my brother and I what to do, and they take care of us, always."_

_"Oh, well, I don't have those, no Digimon does."_

_"And you're a Digimon?"_

_"Uh huh."_

_"You didn't have any family back home?" Mako sounded a little sad at the idea._

_"I--" then Impmon paused, as he tried to remember the Digital World, and to his dismay he found those memories were more than fuzzy. He was gettin' like the basics: images of the scenery, deserts, snowy tundra, and emotions--of fear and anger and loss. He could recall the sensation of bruises and broken bones, and the adrenaline rush and panic during a fight--_

_Impmon slowly rubbed at the back of his head again, trying to feel through the thick bandages he and the Twins had managed to wrap around his head after they had stopped the bleeding somewhat._

_"Are you ok?"_

_"Does it still hurt?"_

_"What? Oh, nah, I'm fine, I just can't really reme--" Then he stopped and gave another shrug…which proved too much, making him wince, and setting both Ai and Mako off, both fussing over him again. _

_They were nice, Impmon decided. It was weird, that instinctive fondness he had for them, but he just chalked it up to them giving him a hand. _

_He could recall the basics, and that's all he really needed, who cared about specifics...._

_&&&_

_As a humanoid Digimon landed, the graceful flap of her wings crackling faintly with her rage, a white-and-blue striped wolf slinked behind her. His eyes warily bore into the Demon Lord's back._

_She turned around swiftly, her black-and-violet cloak whipping with the action._

_"Well, Garurumon?" Her violet eyes were blazing._

_The wolf Digimon bowed his head, "My Lady, there continues to be no sign of him."_

_He stiffened as she noticed __**that**__ hand of hers move--but it remained in its sleeve, no closer to him._

_His superior merely snarled, "Thank you for the update, Captain--now continue your search. Find Impmon. And when you do, I want him brought straight to me."_

_Not waiting for his confirmation, Lilithmon flared her wings and took to the sky once more._

**Notes: And that's it for the prologue, which really needs to remain vague for now. Pretty sure this is the first time I've used italics for the 'present' time—from here on out, the fic will go into the hypothetical past, and progress until we get back to this point in the prologue. Even as Impmon is the focus (and eventual victim of that cliché, the amnesia tactic), the 6 other Digimon Demon Lords will be important as the summary indicates—and some more important than others, as will be seen next chapter, which is gonna also include some meta-turned-into-fic. Also with the Demon Lords, I'm taking a lot of liberties with their characterization, since I haven't seen much of them in the series, and apparently they haven't shown up all together at all in said series. Also as mentioned, there'll be some elements of Adventure 01 and 02 mixed into this story, though it won't go into a complete crossover with those different universes here. Enjoy, and please review. And you're welcome to ask any questions, though they may not always be answered if they end up spoilery. **


	2. Chapter 1

Fic Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member--as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony.... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from Adventure 01 and 02.)

**ETA: Slightly revised notes.**

**Notes: All the Digimon Demon Lords are pictured with their crests and some info on each of them at the Digimon Wiki. Belphemon's appearance in this chapter and in most of the fic is his sleep mode (except the chains are in more of a necklace form, and what looks like ice isn't present) and can be found at the Digimon wiki too.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

Ch.1

"Sister, what do you have here?"

"What does it look like, Barbamon?" Snarled Lilithmon as she continued to hold the egg with distaste and puzzlement, yet her hand was firm, almost protective—she did not dare hold it with her Nazar hand, as corrosive as it was. That, stayed by her side instead, partially hidden in her violet sleeve.

But as the Demon Lord of Greed reached out a claw to trace the egg's markings, Lilithmon seized it with that burning Nazar, threatening to crush his wrist, and worse—

"You don't _need_ to touch it, to know that it's the damn Crest of Gluttony."

"How extraordinary! Where did it come fro--"

"Where are the others?" Lilithmon let go of Barbamon's hand, satisfied that he understood the warning.

"On their way, I assume—they know better than to ignore an emergency meeting, especially when you call it—"

Barbamon ran a thumb over his staff as his more-human looking sister moved back to one of the computers in the lab, once again looking over whatever findings she had. He edged closer, trying to sneak a touch—both whirled around at the sound of the rest of their fellows entering.

"Doesn't Lilith know what time it is…?"

"Belphemon," intoned Leviamon's deep voice, "you'd sleep all the time if you could; it doesn't matter when she or any of us wants an audience with you...."

"Luce and I were just sparring...." Murmured Daemon softly.

Lucemon continued merrily, "Well, I for one am all ears for whatever our dear Sister has to say…"

Barbamon sneaked a glance at Lilithmon's face, watchful for her typical eye roll at Lucemon's joking flirtatious taunts--when she didn't react, his assessment of the seriousness of the situation only grew.

When all the Demon Lords had been gathered for but a second, Lilithmon began without preamble, "Something unexpected has happened."

Belphemon, in that smaller and infant-like mode he favored, was nestled comfortably on Leviamon's long serpentine back. He yawned widely, yet asked, "What did she say?"

"Something vague," snapped Leviamon, his jaws cracking impatiently.

And with that, Lilithmon showed all of them the egg.

The dead silence was only broken by Leviamon's snarl, the sound of his back coiling abruptly as he tried to shake Belphemon to attention. "Open your eyes! Open your eyes, you worthless sack of--"

His ears twitching momentarily, and his ram-like horns shaking slightly, Belphemon's eyes opened only to bleary slits, but that seemed to be enough. "Huh. Gluttony's crest." Yawning, he rubbed his chin. "So, our last member's gonna start as an egg...."

"Apparently," murmured Lilithmon in a very quiet voice, still clutching the egg tightly.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" Began Barbamon excitedly, once again reaching out a claw for the egg. "Highly irregular--"

"Clearly," growled Daemon, his eyes staring hard at Lilithmon and her charge. "We were all adults when we ascended--"

"Descended," put in Lucemon cheerfully.

"Mutated," offered Leviamon.

"--or however you want to put it, let us not argue over semantics. The point is, for a child to--how can a child even--"

"I've tested the egg," interrupted, Lilithmon, and everyone went quiet and still, watching her. "It does have our particular strain of data that gives us our power, makes us Lords...." Her brothers noted something odd about her tone, something thick and heavy in it—yet they pushed it to the back of their minds for now.

"Then it won't start off relatively normal, and later turn into one of us--its data is twisted from the start," murmured Leviamon thoughtfully, above Belphemon's sleepy murmurs.

"So it would seem," said Lilithmon, glancing at the computer again. "We'll have to wait for it to hatch, to be sure...."

"Oh Sister, let me do it!" Began Lucemon eagerly, the black-and-white humanoid Digimon reaching out with bright eyes, his wings fluttering excitedly. "A good whack on the floor, a quick drop down, and it'll crack right open!"

"_No!_" Shouted Lilithmon as she recoiled from Lucemon, holding the egg that much closer to her, and with such venom that jerked Belphemon to conspicuous attention and Barbamon retreated slightly, while Daemon and Leviamon observed her more closely.

"Ah, c'mon Sis," continued Lucemon, still smiling, his eyes still bright, too bright, "I make a mean omelet--"

Daemon pulled a chuckling Lucemon back as Lilithmon flung her Nazar hand at him, hissing like the feline she had been as an Adult Champion.

"Lilith," said Leviamon quietly, but firmly, "**where** did you find this egg?"

"It is_ mine_." It was very disquieting how her voice almost cracked on the last word.

Her Nazar hand out of the question, Lilithmon put it down carefully and kept it close as she clicked a key on the computer. Quietly, the rest of the Lords shifted, getting a closer look at the screen. Automatically, a window popped up, featuring the egg's data strands, in the form of complicated strings of blue and red and pure darkness. With a push of a button, the readout of the egg's data split up into its main components—two of them. A blue strand, and a red-tinted black strand--each stood side by side.

The Demon Lord of Lust then pulled up her file as well--hers a deep black with bits of red writhing in it, matching one half of the egg's data.

"And the other?" Continued Leviamon, even more quietly.

Lilithmon pushed the next button too hard—it pulled up Wizardmon's file, his blue strand matching the egg's last half.

Once again, a dead, if curious silence reigned.

"What were you doing?" It was Barbamon that finally broke the silence, slowly stroking his long white beard all the while.

"Correcting a mistake."

"Leviamon, was Lilith vague again?" Asked Belphemon, scratching his chin.

In a flat voice, she continued, "I was trying to reformat Wizardmon's data. Resurrect him. I relied on the samples Myotismon had collected on all those in his employ, including his...but nothing I did with it seemed to be enough to—"

"Make a duplicate?"

"To bring him _back_," snarled Lilithmon, but Daemon did not back down after speaking that aloud, not even in the face of her increased ire.

"I thought he needed more energy, more data…so I applied mine." She picked up the egg again. "This was the result."

Barbamon's excitement returned, "So a hybrid of yours and Wizardmon's data! Astounding--it looks like a truly independent being--"

"…It's an _egg_, Barb."

"But Daemon, it's clearly not a DNA Evolution of two separate Digimon combining _temporarily_--and though they craft a new appearance, they've never crafted a truly new mind, and Lilith and Wizardmon's hybrid will surely have a mind of its own...."

As the rest of the Demon Lords began to discuss the matter fervently (Belphamon genuinely listening, if typically silent except for a few remarks), Lilithmon drew away, muttering quietly to herself.

"Was this GranDracmon's plan all along?" Lilithmon curled in on herself, whispering to the egg. "Two birds with one stone? But why—why not make all the Demon Lords the same? Twist them in their maturity, as he's done with the rest? Why start from scratch? A baby into a Demon Lord--impossible!" Lilithmon neared the exit, the egg held close enough to her whispering mouth that her dark hair brushed its shell. "Though I suppose…we all did start out that way…but we never had _this_ hanging over our birth!...I'm certain the eggs we hatched from were never so marked.... Why would GranDracmon have one of—have _me_ create the last, instead of by his own hand—is this all an experiment to him?..."

Lilithmon gently traced the egg's crest; while her brothers all had different colors, this one was green, like hers, only a lighter shade…would it have the same green eyes as Wizardmon? She wasn't sure if she wanted or feared that. "I suppose…that raising a Demon Lord from birth would be useful…to have it entirely bent toward serving as one from the very start…to grow its competence, its loyalty--" But she had not remained loyal to Myotismon in the end, had she? And she and her brothers were not exactly loyal to GranDracmon right now either....

Yet Lilithmon's lips smiled at the memory of her Myotismon, the way he finally broke and dispersed into data beneath her Nazar...like Wizardmon had fallen before L—

"Mine," she whispered to the egg. "You are mine, mine to shape…to be by my side." In a shaking voice, almost sobbing: "When your procreator…my friend cannot."

It just seemed…definitive, now. Wizardmon would not be coming back. This hybrid would be all she had left of him.

**Notes: Based on the above link to the Demon Lords, Lilithmon's evolution line very likely goes all the way to Gatomon(Tailmon)--so that just inspired me to explore the idea of her ending up more corrupted by her time with Myotismon from the Adventure series in this AU (and of course the obvious fact of no Kairi around, and Wizardmon's death unhinges her more without her Partner's support), so a lot of Lilithmon's characterization will be drawn from that. And here's the biggest meta-turned-fic part--I'm using Adventure 01/02's Gatomon(Tailmon)/Wizardmon ship (I just enjoy them together, whether platonic or shippy) along with Impmon to explore two Digimon reproducing (but still not anywhere close to 'sexually') offspring--just combining two individuals' data for a new being--and how they react to that, their own view and application of 'parenting,' or its equivalent. To my understanding, this does not ever happen in canon--Digimon eggs sorta just appear straight from all the data floating around, not from two pre-existing Digimon combining in some way. Here's information on GranDracmon, with a picture included (though I may rely on a really neat fanart instead for his appearance in this fic) at the Digimon Wiki. And so Myotismon did not kill Wizardmon in this—as to who really did, that's one story fact that'll be revealed later (though there is a first letter). Hope you enjoyed, and please remember to share a review, or even ask a question—your thoughts are always appreciated.**


	3. Chapter 2

Fic Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member--as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony.... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from Adventure 01 and 02.)

**Notes: For a while, Impmon will be in his baby/in-training/generally younger form, Yaamon. And on that note, his characterization is going to be taken liberty with too, since I want to play with the idea that he was more innocent and even more naïve earlier on, and then work on developing him into more of the Impmon we first meet in Tamers (though I always thought he was a little more innocent too when first with the Twins--but after the bad experiences with them, it was the final straw and he grew more cynical and even snarkier). **

**To ****Geekgirl: Yes, Gatomon never met Kairi in this 01/02 reality. It's a little complicated, and I'm still working out the details, but I'm gonna play with the idea that Tamers had, that Digimon 01/02 was just a television series--but since Digimon ended up being real in their universe anyway, I wish to explore the idea of that "tv show's" elements coming into existence somehow, if a little more twisted....**

**To Bookworm Gal: Thanks so much, your feedback and interest means a lot, since I really do admire your Impmon & Digimon fic. XD**

**To everyone else: Thanks for all the comments, they're real encouraging, and I hope you like this next installment. And I'm really glad no one apparently freaked out at Lilithmon/Gatomon's and Impmon's connection in this. And that everyone's liking the ideas in this fic so far.**

**I will of course make note of dub and original Japanese names when used: here, I'm going with the dub name Gatomon (Tailmon's all right, but I grew up with the dub, and that name just comes to mind first).**

**Similar to Gatomon's place in Lilithmon's evolution line, Patamon also has a place in Daemon's evolution line according to the Digimon Wiki, and that'll be used too.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, or anything related to it.

Ch. 2

Yaamon tried his best not to cry out as he hit the ground again.

A deep purr threatening worse if he didn't get up soon urged the small, purple blob-like being to struggle up despite all his scratches.

Lilith had devolved back into Gatomon, her Champion level. The only explanation she gave was that it was somewhat better to train him like this than in her highest form. But facing off against a white feline only slightly larger than himself felt no better to Yaamon; he couldn't understand why she bothered, it really didn't make much of a difference.

The infant Digimon spat out a rolling ball of darkness straight into her face.

He _knew_ it wouldn't have any effect on her--in fact, her now-blue eyes just shut instinctively and her face only twitched slightly--but still, Yaamon flinched. He didn't _want_ to fight Lilith--

This time he did cry out when Lilith snapped forward and flung him away with the back of her yellow clawed glove.

"I told you not to hesitate." Then the cat Digimon continued her offensive, slashing her claws. Yaamon was narrowly dodging, and trying to keep from cursing—Lilith didn't like it when he did that.

"C'mon Pipsqueak, fight back!" He _hated_ it when she called him that! After dodging her last slash and with her arm still outstretched, Yaamon bit down as hard as he could. Lilith hissed, and then flicked her arm, spinning him a little before slamming him down on the ground, hard. His entire body aching, the infant Digimon immediately let go and started coughing in earnest.

"Get up."

Yaamon tried, but he continued to cough, and that kept him down--

When Lilith elbowed him in the forehead, he cringed, but took his chance when her arm lowered, closer—he bit down on that pointed joint. Claws spread, she gripped his right ear, trying to get him to let go--when it felt like her claws were poking straight through his skin he gasped, letting go--Lilith slammed him down again.

Except for his shuddering as he tried to get up again, Yaamon didn't move, before finally slipping into unconsciousness.

Lilith batted her hybrid around a bit until she gave a sigh, accepting that she had exhausted his energy already and that he wouldn't be waking up anytime soon.

Picking up Yaamon gently with her sheathed claws and standing back up on her front legs, Lilith left the inner courtyard and returned to the fortress.

She caught Daemon's eye, from a ledge above. He opened his wings and took off, hovering beside her--and glowing, shifting back into his Rookie form, a much tanned Patamon with more innocent-looking bat wings.

"Can't expect him to evolve that fast—"

"At this rate, I'll be grateful if he can get to Rookie," she snarled, but shooting the Demon Lord of Wrath a glare up and down his devolved body.

"Oh please, we both know you'll be pushing him just as hard to get to Champion as soon as he jumps this hurdle." Dae flew in a circle over her head, making some demented halo. "And for your information, I thought I would just keep you company in adorable solidarity," he remarked, taking note of her derisive glance.

Lilith snorted, her striped tail whipping back and forth. "The only time I ever see you like that is when you're playing the innocent with your prey, right before stabbing them in the back."

"Now, I can't help it if I have the perfect body for that in my evolutionary line."

Dae flew in close to the unconscious, beaten form of Yaamon, only backing off when Lilith warningly growled at him. "And if you were that concerned about leveling the playing field for this little sparring match, why not go all the way to--"

"An infant? Again? I would never choose to stoop that low for anyone--and neither would you, even for purposes of duplicity...."

Whatever Dae was going to reply to that was soon forgotten as a voice called for him: "Lord Wrath! Lord--"

"Yes Gotsumon?" The Demon Lord asked in a deepening voice as he swiftly shifted back into Daemon.

The rock Digimon skidded to a halt in front of him, bowed, then continued in a rush, "Gar--Captain Garurumon is back, and wants to speak with you right away--oh, hey--" stumbled Gotsumon as he caught sight of Yaamon.

"Poor little guy's roughed up there…again...."

"Come along, Gotsumon," ordered Daemon as he walked off. "Perhaps Yaamon will be allowed to play with you and Pumpkinmon again once he feels better; and if his procreator feels he has earned it...."

Gotsumon trailed off after Daemon, spurred on by the irritated glare Lilith had shot him, even if it was the familiar blue eyes in her Champion form that stared at him so.

Once those two were out of ear shot, Lilith sighed, her feline ears flattening for a moment, before snapping back up. She made her way back to Yaamon's private quarters.

&&&

Yaamon woke up to the feeling of being real wet. A second later he understood.

Lilith was busy cleaning him with her cat's tongue after bandaging him up real good—like she always did after training. (Leviamon said that her particular style of grooming was her Compulsive Champion instinct). Yaamon was thankful this was one of the times where he woke up at this point, rather than when she was fixin' him up. During that, he would get to really feel the sting of herbal ointments she put on for all the scratches and bruises, and it would bring tears to his eyes, tears Lilith hated and would scold him about, telling him to stop 'cause tears didn't do anything.

The infant Digimon tried to keep still during the bath, but he still fidgeted, though Lilith made no comment. When she was done, his procreator only said, "It should be night by now." Then she glowed, and changed from Gatomon back into what Yaamon mostly just saw as her tallest form, soon towering over him in flowing robes and with her wings framing her height, her more human face looking down.

Already in his layer of blankets on the floor, Yaamon slipped in further and made himself look ready to go to bed, 'cause he knew well enough what Lilith had meant when referring to the time. And truthfully, he was tired, he normally was after training.

"Would you like to hear another story about Wizardmon?"

"Uh huh." Though he knew that even if had said 'no thanks,' Lilithmon would tell him anyway. Fortunately for him, the stories were interesting, helped answer some of his questions about his second and dead procreator, when his first and still living one wouldn't answer directly.

"All right then.... My former lord Myotismon sent your procreator and me to deal with some bandits that had managed to steal from his supply trains. He specifically ordered us to bring back their leader, whom he would deal with personally. When we tracked them down, we had to decide on the best strategy to deal with their large numbers. We did end up relying on my brute strength--"

"'Cept you were fast as lightning, even as a kitty cat."

Lilithmon smirked at the interruption, and then continued. "But Wizardmon managed to get into the minds of several of the bandits, and turn them against their comrades."

"What do ya mean?"

"Your procreator could use his magic to read other Digimon's minds, and to manipulate them as well. If your will was sufficiently strong, you could fight off his psychic powers--still, Wizardmon's own mind was formidable. Understand?"

Yaamon furrowed his brow in concentration, but he said, "Yeah," quite seriously.

Lilithmon considered him just as seriously, though her violet eyes had a distant look. "Perhaps when you evolve, you'll demonstrate some abilities similar to Wizardmon's...."

The infant looked down at the blankets, blushing and fidgeting at the thought of evolution--he just _knew_ he wasn't doing well on that score, and how much his still living procreator wanted him to advance, to grow stronger. How she wanted him to be a great Demon Lord just like her, and he wasn't sure if he could ever do that…not even sure if **he** really wanted it himself....

The infant Digimon snapped to attention when Lilithmon continued the story, "He wrought confusion everywhere, making it easier for me to fight, and capture their chief, a wily Fangmon. Together we brought him back to Myotismon, and he made an example of him."

Yaamon unconsciously bit his lip. He knew better than to ask, 'Then what happened?' when it came to details about Lilith's ex-boss.

"Now it's time to sleep; getting knocked out from a hard day's training isn't enough rest."

And with that Lilithmon went to the entrance, waited to make sure Yaamon went still and closed his eyes. After a few minutes the infant Digimon's breathing leveled out into a soothing slumbering tone, and finally the Demon Lord left her hybrid in his room.

&&&

"Well? What did Garurumon have to say?"

"That he and his scouts stumbled upon something…odd, in the lower levels. They failed to gather samples, but they wish to continue surveillance--"

"Of what?" Lilithmon finally snapped, and Daemon regarded her coolly.

He continued, "I'm getting there…though admittedly, it's not much so far." Daemon shrugged. "As they were mapping the lower canyons, they found these odd, reddish pink bubbles floating up. One of his Gazimon touched a bubble--she felt a sting and instantly retreated, with only her fur singed."

Lilithmon shook her head, "Volcanic, somehow?"

"Possibly. It bears further investigation either way," replied Daemon as he flared his wings, preparing to take off. "I've already accepted Garurumon's request to return with a more specialized team, he'll be off again tomorrow morning."

"Did he already report to the others?"

"He didn't with you, now did he? Granted, he assumed you were busy training your hybrid--and besides, I was the one who sent him out on this particular mission in the first place." Daemon shook his head, and continued, "No, I told him I would give his message to our fellow Lords." He turned away from her. "One down, five more to go."

And with that, Daemon flew up, angling toward the observatory tower, where Barbamon probably was, busy staring up at the Human World through his telescope.

Folding her hands in both sleeves, Lilithmon remained in the courtyard a moment longer, then shook her head and retreated to her own quarters.

**Notes: …Yes, that was a hint for the D-Reaper there. I figure I could do a little of its beginnings in Impmon's prequel too.**


	4. Chapter 3

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member--as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony.... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from Adventure 01 and 02.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

**Notes: I'm gonna aim for roughly an update per week. To my understanding, Belphemon appeared in Digimon Savers/Season 5, which I've never seen, so that won't really be an influence on his characterization in this. Again, thanks for all the comments, and I hope you enjoy this chapter. **

Ch. 3

Belphemon yawned, and continued, "What about Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon--"

"Guarding prisoners," replied Lilithmon impatiently.

The Demon Lord of Sloth arched a brow. "Luce still needs them guarding our guests while he, er, _interrogates_ them?"

"I'm not even going to attempt to fathom how Lucemon's mind works."

"Our brother just wants an audience…anyway, never mind his discretions--"

"If you can even call them that."

"--what about the rest of our fellow Lords?"

Lilithmon gave Belphemon's currently child-like form a flat glare.

"You know very well that you're Yaamon's favorite."

"Seriously, flattery? That's not your style, Lilith."

"You mistake fact for flattery."

"Right…even if that were true, it's only 'cause I'm asleep most of the time and let him take care of himself--"

"Which is why you're always perfect for the job." And with that Lilithmon turned on her heel, calling over her shoulder, "I'll send Yaamon in; I won't be back until late at night, so put him to sleep--you're good at that."

Belphemon shrugged, and simply closed his eyes as Yaamon bounded in and happily jumped on him. He let himself fall over from Yaamon's weight, and the slightly smaller infant Digimon continued to bounce on his stomach, his mouth going on and on about…well, Belphemon felt pretending to listen was sufficient with his youngest kin.

&&&

Belph's quarters were much larger than his. Yaamon remembered that Lilithmon had told him that Belphemon's room was larger to accommodate his more combat-effective form, whenever he deigned to wear it, which she said was always rare, and Yaamon hadn't even seen it yet. For whatever reason, Yaamon had only seen him as a Digimon only slightly larger than himself and always looking so sleepy. Lilith and the other Lords had confirmed that he had been like that long before Yaamon's arrival, and was now typically seen as the second smallest in their group, with the infant taking first place now.

"I'll get my title back though, when you evolve," Belph had teased before, and Yaamon had felt deeply reassured, for a rare moment really believing he could do it someday.

Belphemon's quarters also had more stuff than his--mostly comfortable cushions for his perpetual slumber, but some shelves with scrolls in 'em, and various vases with pictures and glyphs on 'em, and sculptures too, of monstrous-looking Digimon, and some that looked quite innocent, and some that just looked plain weird. Yaamon had asked before for Belph to read those scrolls to him, but he would always choose right then to nod off, which made the infant Digimon consider that was his indirect way of refusing, and that only made him wonder if Belph didn't know how to read either. (Lilith said he would teach him later, but Barb was determined to teach the infant **now**, so he got lessons from him in between the rigorous combat training.) Yaamon looked through the vases and sculptures himself carefully; again, Belphemon wouldn't answer his questions about them, except to say that some vases bore the Demon Lords' crests, though he hadn't bothered pointing out which ones yet. So that piece of info was rather useless since the infant still had no idea what the crests looked like, and altogether the vases carried over 7 different symbols, so it wasn't like he could easily figure out which was which. In the end, Yaamon just made up stories about Belph getting the vases and sculptures in daring adventures, with Lilithmon and the other Lords sometimes guest starring.

Currently, the infant Digimon was just playing a pretend variation of tag while Belphemon was knocked out like a light, curled on his side and snoring loudly.

"_Ha ha ha_, I'm fast as Myotismon's prized soldier Gatomon, now the Greatest Demon Lord Ever Lilithmon, faster than dumb ol' data streams--"

Yaamon banged into one of the shelves--which began to tip. His eyes widened, knowing either a sculpture or a vase or all of them would break, knowing very well Belph would be upset and his procreator furious, she had told him to always mind those shelves 'cause they carried fragile stuff--

The infant Digimon completely froze when he saw Belphemon sit straight up from the other side of the room. His eyes were wide open, and it was only then that Yaamon realized they were red, a glowing red, and the infant knew that Belph would definitely be mad over his stuff breaking--

In another second, Belphemon was there in a leap that didn't stop until he had shoved Yaamon out of the way of several vases and sculptures shattering where he had been. Yaamon blinked; looked at Belphemon, whose eyes were drooping again; then to the broken sculptures and vases; finally to the far opposite side of the room where Belph had slept seconds ago.

"You're fast," breathed the infant Digimon, dumbfounded.

"What made you think I wasn't?" Belph asked, and he sounded genuinely curious.

"Because you sleep a lot."

"Yes--but actually, it's _because_ I sleep a lot, that I try to be fast."

"You don't try, you **are** real fast…but how does sleeping make you faster?"

Belphemon picked up Yaamon, walked away from the mess and set the infant on a cushion, then lied down next to him. "The faster I am, the sooner I can get back to sleep."

Yaamon blinked. "Oh. Well, that makes sense."

"And even if I do like sleeping, I'm still more attentive than some might give me credit for." Yaamon shuffled guiltily at that. "For all their mockery, my brothers and your procreator do know that. Most of the time, they always expect me to have listened to them when they speak…though whether I choose to acknowledge them or feign ignorance is ultimately my choice."

The infant bit his lip, confused.

Belphemon yawned, clarifying, "I either let them know that I heard them, or I pretend that I didn't and ignore them."

"Why would you do that? Why not always let them know you heard ok?"

"Like I said, it's my choice--what I want to do." Belphemon let that sink in for a minute with the infant. Of course, the Demon Lord of Sloth had never spoken this plainly with anyone before, but he figured he had to with someone as young as Yaamon, and so ignorant of life's subtleties. He continued, "Granted, I tend to avoid pretending in regards to important matters, or when I feel that I must say something."

Silence ensued as Belphemon rolled to his side, curling up and yawning, while Yaamon looked at the mess he made and began to fidget in earnest.

Finally, Yaamon muttered, "Sorry."

"Just don't tell Lilithmon. She'll freak, even if I tell her that I can just make more knick knacks...." Almost immediately afterwards, Belphemon began to snore, and wouldn't respond to Yaamon's further apologies, offers to help clean up and maybe try to fix the stuff, or anything else the infant said.

Though when Yaamon began to shuffle back toward the broken pieces, to clear them away and see if they would possibly stick back together by themselves, Belphemon's voice rang out, "Leave it alone." Still, the rest of the older Demon Lord's small body made no movement.

Yaamon quickly hopped back to Belphemon's side and stayed there, trying to nap like his friend until his procreator returned.

**Notes: Admittedly, not much plot happened, just some character interaction and the simple fact that despite being the Demon Lord of Sloth, Belphemon's **_**fast**_**—full credit for that idea goes to Hiromu Arakawa's manga "Fullmetal Alchemist," which is actually ending up being a good inspiration in this, since it features an interesting group of villains based on the 7 Sins too. Later chapters may pick up slightly in plot terms, but a lot will be just Yaamon's interacting one-on-one with each of the older Demon Lords at least once before a certain turning point in the fic. Thanks for reading, and I continue to look forward to any comments or questions you have. **


	5. Chapter 4

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member-as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from Adventure 01 and 02.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

**Notes: A little graphic violence below. And I'm going with the idea that Digimon can bleed too. I've learned Lucemon appears in Frontier-which I haven't really watched, so I'm still taking liberties with his character in this-possibly drastic ones. Though apparently he's been described as 'cruel' in Frontier, something I'm going with too.**

**To ****Zim'sMostLoyalServant****: So far, not all of FMA's Homunculi personalities will be incorporated (some just don't seem to fit the Digimon Demon Lords, like the Greed in each show seems too different from each other), but at least one more will, such as in this chapter. FMA's Lust did act motherly toward Gluttony, didn't she? I was surprised how that ended up being similar to my fic here, it hadn't occurred to me before. I like the idea of Belphemon having a soft spot for Yaamon/Impmon, and them being friends. **

**To everyone else: Thanks for the wonderful comments and encouragement! **

Ch. 4

"What's this lesson gonna be about Luce? Are you gonna train me like Lilith?"

"Oh no, but it's something just as important," called Lucemon over his shoulder and in between his black and white wings. Yaamon continued to follow him down the stairs, trying to keep up with his long stride.

Finally, they stopped before an archway at the foot of the stairs.

"These are the dungeons—you've heard us mention these once in a while, haven't you?"

"Uh huh."

They went down a dark tunnel with dim lighting that made the infant Digimon a little nervous, but he was well aware he had to follow the Demon Lord of Pride. He continued to try to match the older Digimon's speed.

"And here are the individual cells that make up the dungeon—quite a lot, aren't there?" To Yaamon, they were like squares upon squares of different sized rooms with bars and symbols etched above them. A few had frightening sounds that made him edge farther away. But the older Demon Lord began walking down the halls of these cells, and the infant followed again—hearing more pained, mournful, and angry cries from the bars ringing louder and clearer.

Lucemon took him to a cell near the end of the line. "Their bars have an extra precaution, they electrocute anyone who touches them—" and with that Lucemon moved his white boot and softly kicked Yaamon, but it was enough to make him fall against the bars. The infant cried out as the bars positively crackled with offensive energy, and he managed to jerk himself away. He lay shivering at Lucemon's feet.

"See? It works very well." Yaamon blinked instinctive tears out of his eyes, then was suddenly seized by a coughing fit, and that only made his eyes water even more.

"But when I or my brothers or your lovely procreator touches them—" and he moved his white glove to the bars, gripping one tightly. There was a click, and Lucemon once more pushed the infant to the bars. Yaamon flinched, his eyes squeezing shut; slowly he opened them, once he realized there was no horrible shock to greet him.

"And that cell's bars turn off their electricity. It won't harm any of the Demon Lords, it's keyed to our specific data signatures, except yours, since you're young and still in training and have yet to prove your worth—why, you can't even evolve yet—or your loyalty..."

Lucemon opened the bars and gently shoved Yaamon inside with his boot.

The infant recoiled at the stench the second Lucemon forced him inside, gagging and turning away.

"Hello Crowmon," began the older Demon Lord, his voice warm and inviting, "how are we feeling today?"

The infant turned back to look at the Digimon Luce was talking to, and he flinched at the sight. He could barely tell it was a bird Digimon—a lot of its feathers were ripped away. It was bruised and all cut up and bones were poking out of skin at some parts. It was caked in dried blood, and some of that dark red stained the walls and floors too.

The Crowmon's only response was to shoot Lucemon a tired glare.

"Oh now, Crow my boy—" and Luce moved forward, clicking the door shut, and the sound made Yaamon jump back slightly. "—I left your lungs perfectly intact, didn't I?"

After glancing at the locked door, the infant looked around, and then hopped to a corner that seemed far enough away from both Lucemon and the mutilated bird Digimon.

"I brought company today," said Lucemon as he knelt before Crowmon, and at that Yaamon turned his face to the wall, even if it bore a particularly large patch of dried blood. "Oh now, Yaamon," called Luce in a too sweet voice that made the infant stiffen, "don't be shy—join us."

The infant turned around and slowly hopped to the kneeling Demon Lord. Lucemon placed an arm around the infant and slid him closer to Crowmon's bent head, close enough that Yaamon could see his reflection in one large, empty eye.

"We're finally a complete set, Crowmon! We're home growing our last Demon Lord, and isn't he just a precious little thing!"

"Why's he here?" Yaamon blinked; he couldn't believe he had just asked that aloud.

Lucemon looked down at him, grinning: "Why do you think he's here?" The infant's mouth suddenly grew dry; he had overheard some stuff, he knew why already, of course he did—this Digimon was clearly an Enemy, and Lilith spoke of it as a necessary thing to deal with them in whatever way they had to. It was just…just that—

"Oh Pipsqueak, you know we have him here—like this—for a perfectly good reason." Yaamon looked up at him, and felt even more uncertain. He had a very strong sense that Luce's tone was challenging, as if he dared the infant to question him again—and then find out for himself what would happen next.

"Is he telling you secrets?" Mumbled Yaamon, and his eyes went wide—he had _not_ just actually asked that, right to Luce's face.

"Why, he's telling me a lot," replied Lucemon. _Ok, so I __**did**__ just ask that_...

The Demon Lord's white glove snapped out and sharpened, raking a claw through scabs along Crowmon's sides and spilling fresh red. "He's telling me his exhaustion..."

It happened so fast, the infant saw it all, and he flinched. He squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip at the sound the bird Digimon made—it wasn't a loud shriek, but a wet hacking cough that sounded even worse. Yaamon found himself sympathizing—it didn't feel good when Lilith clawed at him in her Champion level during training, or when coughs tore out of his small throat. Yet he knew that Lucemon's strike was worse than anything his procreator had ever delivered, and that disturbed him greatly.

"Now, now, Little One—I want you to watch—" and Lucemon pulled the infant up as the Demon Lord straightened to his full height, holding the infant on one shoulder. The hand holding him up was also clawed, its points biting into his flesh, instinctively making his eyes shoot open, but he knew better than to let his cry out.

"See—?" and Lucemon shoved a boot down on a leg that seemed to have been healing awkwardly; now, it was ruined again. This time Crowmon gave a short high shriek over the sound of cracking bone and rupturing flesh. "He's telling me his fear..."

Lucemon brutally kicked Crowmon in the side he had just torn open, causing the bird Digimon to roll onto one of his torn wings, the other flying up from the force. The prisoner only gave out a strangled shout, barely trapped behind his beak (Yaamon just noticed that its point had been cut off, leaving it stump-like). "He's telling me his anger..."

Crowmon howled—Lucemon had ripped out the rest of the feathers from the wing that wasn't crushed under the own bird Digimon's weight, the one that had instinctively flared up almost level with the Demon Lord. "He's telling me his loathing..."

The infant's wide green eyes closed, his ears flattened—

"No, no—" ordered Lucemon, holding him in both hands, then one withdrew to slap him only lightly on the side, but Yaamon's eyes opened all the same—he knew what the older Demon Lord meant.

"Watch."

And so he did.

###

"Finish it."

Yaamon blinked. He had learned quickly during Lucemon's 'lesson' that blinking was all right, as long as they weren't too slow, as long as they didn't impede his sight.

The infant stared at what was left of Crowmon, watched how its chest still went up and down, though feebly. Then he turned back to Lucemon (the Demon Lord had set him down a while ago) and asked, "What?"

Lucemon gave him a fond smile. "He's weak enough where even _you_ could kill him—and then you get to absorb all his data and that'll surely help you evolve faster."

Green eyes blinked up at the Demon Lord again; then Yaamon turned back to stare at the half-dead bird Digimon.

"Your procreator would be so proud," whispered Lucemon in his ear.

Yaamon worked his mouth uselessly, trying to say—he wasn't sure what, but something. The infant started to retreat—he resisted the urge to whimper as Lucemon pushed him back closer to Crowmon.

Again the Demon Lord whispered: "It would make him stop hurting for good." Yaamon hopped back; Lucemon pushed him forward, again saying in that low velvety voice, "He's begging for it—that release—even if he's too _proud_ to say—" and then the Demon Lord gave a delighted laugh, and Yaamon was at least quick enough to know the pun-filled joke Lucemon had just made for his own amusement.

It gave him the opportunity to give a great leap, and he was away from Lucemon and back in his own corner. "No," he murmured into the wall, his back to the older Demon Lord.

"What?" Lucemon sounded too mildly shocked.

"No no no no—"

"Do not whine so—"

"No no no no no no no—"

"What would your procreator think?"

"No no no no no no no no no no no no—"

"_Yaamon_!" The infant flinched, but not out of fear—he was shocked to hear Lilithmon so close, and he looked to the door. It was open, and she stood there, watching the three of them with a burning look in her eyes.

"See? I told you so!" Piped up Lucemon in a light voice. But Yaamon barely heard him; the infant eagerly rushed to his procreator and hopped up and down before her, a pleading look in his eyes. Lilithmon immediately took the hint and picked up Yaamon, holding him gently in her arm as he buried his face in her sleeve. At this point, he didn't care that Lucemon might be right about her being disappointed or mad at him; it was just so good that she was here at all.

As the infant trembled, she whispered in his ear, "I expect my dress to be dry when I put you down."

His own low whisper was muffled in her sleeve: "It will be, I promise."

Lilithmon knew it would not—she had seen her hybrid with splatters of blood on his fur that were not quite dry yet, and they would soak into the fabric, but that was a familiar sight and sensation for her by now.

Lucemon had better hope that none of the blood left behind on her clothes belonged to Yaamon.

"What is going on?"

"Ah, my dear Sister," and Lucemon walked forward eagerly, his own arms wide, with much more blood dotting his skin and splashed over his gloves and boots, more stained than the infant's body. "I was just providing your young hybrid with a hands-on demonstration—not that he has any hands yet, not even little toes to wiggle—"

"Then I fail to see how he could've participated in any of it."

"Oh, but he did—he observed, paid attention, and he was just about to end this poor creature's suffering and take his data for his own—help his evolution and all, I knew you would appreciate that—"

"I was not!" Snapped out Yaamon as he lifted himself up from Lilithmon's sleeve and turned to face Lucemon with a glare. _Ok, so I'm freakin' nuts_—the infant froze as his procreator's other arm moved, it was the one she told him to Never Never Ever touch. The data within Lilithmon's Nazar stretched, the whole arm lengthening—all the way to wrap a pale bronze claw around Crowmon's head while the rest of her body stayed put at the door. Yaamon watched as her hand raised the bird Digimon's head up, then squeeze, _hard_—it burst into scraps of data, then the rest of his body exploded into similar bits and pieces.

The infant could barely breathe at the sight.

"Yaamon, absorb it—it should come instinctive to you," intoned Lilithmon in a cold voice.

And it did, Yaamon felt something deep within him cry out for that poor Digimon's data, he knew what to do…but... "I—no, I said 'no'—Lilith, please—"

She snarled, and he flinched, expecting her to fling him against the wall—but instead the infant felt her grow unbearably warm, and he looked back and saw the data in the air drift faster and faster toward her, seeping through her flesh and into her very core. When Lilithmon had absorbed all of Crowmon's data, Yaamon felt her cool down again to her normal temperature.

Lucemon broke the cold silence with a cheery voice: "Well, the Little One probably didn't feel right absorbing data from someone he hadn't killed himself—why, I've been that selective myself sometimes—"

"As I've asked of you earlier, Brother, speak to me about any educational plans you propose for my hybrid **before** you enact them."

She slammed the door shut with a clang, ignoring Lucemon's call: "I'll just make a note that this cell is vacant, all right?"

**Notes: And so Lucemon's kinda the most conspicuous ax-crazy among the Demon Lords here. Something he ends up having in common with FMA's manga version of Pride. It's just whenever I looked at his picture in the Digimon Wiki, he struck me as the most noticeably deranged. The description next to his picture kinda supported my own theory about him, but that was just how I read the thing. The sacrificial Crowmon can be found on the Digimon wiki. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your comments and questions. **


	6. Chapter 5

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member-as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from Adventure 01 and 02.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

Ch. 5

"Yaamon..." Lilithmon resisted the urge to shake her head as she busied herself with putting her hybrid to bed. She did not wish to falter in front of her infant, even if she was at a loss on how to explain Lucemon's actions to him, especially since she could not flat out condone them. Her brother could be frivolous too often, but his ruthlessness was admirable, and that was something she wanted, _needed_ to instill in Yaamon.

The infant Digimon looked up at her with Wizardmon's green eyes filled to the brim with exhaustion and confusion and other messy emotions she did not wish to untangle-his eyes were giving her a headache. Damn them. Damn him. To remind her of the one she wanted most, but could never have...to remind her of her own former weakness, for the actual expression in his eyes was all too similar to the one she had early in Myotismon's service... If only those eyes of his would only comfort her like they did at times-but no, they had to offer her nothing but regret and torment every other damn moment.

Lilithmon settled herself more comfortably on the floor beside his blankets, not looking at him. "For now, don't internalize what Lucemon taught you-"

"What?"

His procreator shook her head: "Just try to ignore what he did today-" Lilithmon knew damn well that would be an impossible feat.

"He went too fast," she continued in an icy tone, being completely honest. "For now, I just want you to evolve to the next level. _Then_ killing and absorbing another's data, and then…prolonging it."

"…Why make it longer?"

"The torture Lucemon showed you can be used to interrogate others, to make them tell you specific information. It can also be used to develop your reputation, make others fear you—know better than to displease you," she finally said, bluntly. The Demon Lord looked down at Yaamon, as he tried to process this, though he still looked puzzled and disturbed. "However, his lesson was a crude demonstration, and if anything, more for his own amusement."

"I knew he just wanted to have fun—what's fun to _him_, anyway," mumbled the infant Digimon, and Lilithmon gave a small smirk at that.

She ruffled the short purple fur on his head, and Yaamon happily leaned into that rare gentle touch of hers. "Cleverer than I give you credit for," murmured Lilithmon fondly.

Just as quickly did she show soft affection, the Demon Lord stood up and ordered, "It's late-get some rest," then left the infant Digimon's quarters.

Yaamon stayed up, staring at her exit for a while longer and biting his lip, before he lied back down. He scooted deep into his covers, and hesitantly closed his eyes, tried to get some sleep.

###

Of course, after informing the rest of her brothers of the egg's existence, Lilithmon immediately had a room built near her quarters. The austere room was ready to welcome its new occupant, a small babbling Kiimon that quickly evolved into a still talkative Yaamon. That evolution had poured icy shock down Lilithmon's spine as her hybrid's eyes turned from a neutral shiny black into Wizardmon's green.

Lilithmon had wanted her hybrid close at hand, especially with him being such a young thing-as such, she could now hear well enough what she had been expecting for a while this night: Yaamon's terrified screams. And of course, she returned to his room within seconds of his horrible wails bursting out of his mouth.

She knelt down at his side and pulled his shaking and shrieking body to her, running her non-hazardous hand up and down his small back. Lilithmon murmured her assurances to him: that it was all a nightmare, that it could not bother him, that it should not, that he should not let it hurt and terrify him so, that nothing in your head can hurt you, that he should calm down and go back to sleep, he would have a long day tomorrow.

Soon Yaamon's screams went down to sobs when he realized his procreator was there. He buried himself in her sleeve once more, shuddering and muttering his curses that for once Lilith let him get away with (perhaps since they were muffled in the fabric).

Eventually he went still and very quiet. Satisfied, Lilithmon laid him back down and covered him in his blankets, then began to stand up to leave. She stilled in surprise as she felt a tug on her sleeve; she looked down to find Yaamon biting down tight on it. Lilithmon shot him a glare, but waited for him to explain. The infant Digimon let go, and begged, "Don't leave me alone, please."

For a moment the Demon Lord was breathless with outrage.

"You must learn to be alone," she finally snapped, successfully pushing back her initial instinct to slam him into the wall. But she did knelt back down to roughly grab his ear, pulling him in the right direction so as to make certain that she looked her in the eye with his damnable green ones, Wizardmon's...

"Many times, I've been alone," offered the Demon Lord, deciding she would also use that truth to convince, to make him understand-she just had to keep the bitterness out of it. Just resist giving into what she thought too petty to ever verbalize-_why should __**you**__, hybrid of my own essence, of my best friend's, my __**dear**__ and only hybrid…why should you even ask to not be alone, when __**I**__ had to be, so often in my life? _

Instead she continued, "If I endured it, so will you."

And so Lilithmon left, even faster than the last departure that night. Yaamon stared after his procreator again, biting his lip once more, but this time hard enough to make it bleed through. After taking a moment to lick his mouth clean as best as he could, Yaamon laid back down and squeezed his eyes shut, repeating over and over again what Lilithmon had murmured so gently, rather than her last harsh words: _nothing in your head can hurt you nothing in your head can hurt you nothing in your head can hurt you_

The rest of the night passed without noise for both of them.

###

Lilithmon had drawn up a new schedule in her head before she finally found rest that night.

The fact that she let Yaamon sleep in the next morning was his first clue of the change.

"The mornings will be your free time now; I expect you in the courtyard in the afternoon for training." And after that curt order, Lilithmon left her hybrid alone to his own devices.

Immediately Yaamon hopped to Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon's quarters in the Servant Halls, and to his delight he found that they were there, and not busy at the moment.

"-"

"All right, all right, just enunciate, damn it!"

Gotsumon shook his head at Pumpkinmon, muttering, "And you wonder where the kid learned that sort of language?"

Pumpkinmon grunted: "Please, the Pipsqueak's a natural!"

"Don't call me that!" Whined the infant Digimon, hopping in between the two larger ones now with a furious look in his eyes. His glare only intensified when the two just snickered and remarked over how _cute_ he was when angered.

After laying down restrictions to the pouting infant ("For your own good and our sake-we're screwed if you get in trouble while _we_ supervise you," explained Gotsumon) they played tag and hide-and-seek throughout the corridors. Then Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon let Yaamon direct them in building a 'tower' from the crudely carved blocks of wood they had made for their young Lord when he had just been an even smaller Kiimon before.

"Higher up-"

"No, you need to build up the support, kid-"

"C'mon, let me do it-"

"You don't have any hands to hold a block, and your mouth won't cut it, and don't even think about balancing it on your head, that's just dumb-"

"I dunno Gotsu, sounds pretty funny to me-"

It ended up with the three taking turns balancing the blocks on each other's heads.

"Another one, Pumpkinmon!"

"Fine, just hold still..." Pumpkinmon analyzed the small tower of blocks settled in between Yaamon's ears, trying to figure out the best time and place. He made a show of rubbing his chin and Gotsumon snickered in the background.

"C'monc'monc'mon-"

"What did I tell you about enunciating?"

But finally Pumpkinmon settled another block on top, freezing when the column on the infant's head began to sway, and only relaxing when it stilled.

Yaamon piped up, "Another! Another and another, I wanna have the tallest-"

And then it was Gotsumon's turn to pile one on, and the two alternated again, and so it went, and even when all the blocks came tumbling down the only sound Yaamon made was delighted laughter. The older Digimon shook their heads at the infant's pleasure, and at how he kept jumping up and down before them demanding, "again!" "again!" as they picked up the scattered blocks.

Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon stopped at the sound of a nose sniffing, though Yaamon continued on asking for more, oblivious. First thing around the corner was a dark nose, then its gray furred body followed it, and red eyes opened from their contemplative tracking with a flash of faint satisfaction.

"There you are, Lord Gluttony," said Gazimon as she bowed low before the smaller Digimon, who finally noticed her.

"Y'know, you can just call me Yaamon."

Gazimon quirked a brow, shaking her head: "I have a message from my Lord Lilithmon, inquiring as to whether you know the time?..."

The infant's green eyes widened spectacularly at that.

With a brief curse, Yaamon said "bye" to Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon and then dashed off for the courtyard.

All three of the older Digimon stared after their young Lord's vanishing trail, then looked to each other and shook their heads.

"I _really_ hope he doesn't grow up as terrifying as the others," said Pumpkinmon lightly as he walked ahead.

Gazimon snarled, following him, "You dare insinuate against our Lords?"

Sighing, Gotsumon picked up Yaamon's blocks then followed as well, though taking care to be a few steps behind the two.

"I don't insinuate anythin'-they _are_ a terror, that's just a fact."

"Indeed," snapped Gazimon, "All the more reason to give them our total respect."

"Still," put in Gotsumon, and the others turned to look at him, "it would be nice if he grew up, y'know…nicer than them."

Gazimon stared at him a second longer, then turned away, conceding, "Yes, it would be a boon for us if he grew up into someone more merciful."

"But, y'know," replied Gotsumon, giving a shrug, "our Lords are-ok, like Pumpkin Head here said, yeah, they're frightening-but that's only when you get on their bad side. They're pretty fair already. Fairer than Myotismon was anyway."

"I should count myself lucky I never served under him as you two did," murmured Gazimon. But she amended quietly, "Though our Lord Lucemon could be the exception."

"If that isn't a Myotismon-in-the-making, then I don't know what is," put in Pumpkinmon, folding his arms behind his head. "Still, who are we kidding? Other than the kid, they're **all** ticking time bombs, even if a lot of the time most of them _are_ pretty reasonable-"

"Now _that_," snarled Gazimon, "is insinuation—and I suggest we end our already dubious conversation here."

"All right, all right, Little Miss Priss-let's change the topic: since you're here playing messenger, I'm guessin' you and Captain Garurumon just returned from your latest investigation."

"And you want to know how it went," she replied in a flat voice. Pumpkinmon just beamed in response.

Gotsumon asked with minor interest, "Did you manage to get samples this time?"

"Did you burn your whole backside this time from touching the gunk?" Pumpkinmon snickered as he gestured to the bandages on her body.

Gazimon coolly answered, "I'm afraid we ran into trouble on the way back-the Digimon kind."

"Anyone we know?" Gotsumon asked.

"No Devas, no servants to them, no one affiliated with any other organized enemy group. Just a random disagreement."

"Right...a disagreement over borrowing data, huh?" Gazimon just flashed a grim smile at Pumpkinmon.

"So_, did_ you get-"

"Yes, a few. And no," she turned away from the rock Digimon, looking to his orange-headed friend, "we saw no changes in its behavior. We could tell though that their numbers increased..."

"So the killer bubbles are spreading. Great."

"Laugh all you want," snapped Gazimon. Then she continued, "This could be serious."

"_This_ from our resident conspiracy theorist..."

"If I'm not mistaken, _you_ were the one who was implying that all of our Lords were inherently unstable-"

Gotsumon quickly moved in between his friend and Gazimon, "Hey, guys-"

"-and wouldn't that include your little playmate?"

Pumpkinmon moved forward, lifting a hand-for some reason, what she said was real unsettling to him-but Gotsumon firmly stood in front of him and held him by the shoulder, while his free arm still held Yaamon's toy blocks.

Gazimon's cold red eyes regarded them both, then closed as she gave one last sigh, "I still have other duties to attend to, as do you two, I imagine."

And with that she vanished around the other corner, leaving Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon to troop first back to Yaamon's small room to deposit his blocks, then back to the guard towers. It was about time for their shift anyway.

###

Back to her champion level, Lilith just regarded Yaamon silently as he stared at the ground. The infant wished she would snarl or shout—it'd be better than this. Even her striped tail wasn't whipping back and forth; it was just lazily swinging around, low to the ground.

At least she met one of his expectations: her blows were fiercer in reply to his tardiness.

By the time he was allowed to take a break, one of his eyes was swollen shut, and the world looked funny that way. _Least I still get to take a break_, though the infant as he reclined on the grass for a moment. He always got one break, which effectively split up their sparring into two rounds (unless whenever he got knocked out and it just took forever to revive him). After that, Yaamon felt he wasn't doing any better as Lilith only struck out harder and faster, and he started to wonder what the freakin' point of the break was.

Yaamon stayed conscious at the end this time-but he had the sneaking suspicion that was only because his procreator told him he would have to take himself up to his room, she would not carry him this time.

He didn't even have the energy to shoot her a filthy look or give her pitiful eyes or even express what he was thinking: _I can barely move, I'm too tired to go all by myself, couldn't you at least carry me up like you always do_?

Yaamon managed to drag himself up to his quarters all the same, as slow and laborious the whole process was. He gasped for air in his room, disbelieving that it was really that far from the courtyard where he trained, it never seemed that way before ever.

_Forget the bed_, was the infant's last thought as he stayed right there just a few feet inside his room and away from his quarters' entrance. His non-swelled eye drooped shut like his black eye, and his breathing leveled out into something calm, no longer gasping or coughing.

That night, Yaamon felt too tired to dream at all.


	7. Chapter 6

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member--as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon.... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

Ch. 6

"'Iss-land....'"

"No, it's pronounced 'Ahy-luhnd....'"

"But it doesn't sound like it's spelled--"

"Well, this is where it can get tricky...." Barbamon lectured as he adjusted the book and Yaamon in his lap. After learning about Lilithmon's new training schedule for her hybrid, the Demon Lord of Greed had insisted that Yaamon devote at least some of his mornings each week to their reading lessons, the older Digimon was all for finally getting a consistent time set up for that.

"Now, the definition...."

"It's like this lump in the--"

"Read the words, Little One, do not describe the picture," Barbamon sighed, once again regretting that he caved in and found an illustrated dictionary for the infant. The quality of the text was unchanged from a normal dictionary—he had made sure of that when Bokomon copied it down and added the drawings with Neemon's dubious assistance—it's just the pictures proved more distracting to Yaamon, rather than the pacifying and encouraging effect Barbamon had hoped for.

"'A land ma--massss…espicilly one smaller than a cont--conti--'"

"Yes, sound it out...."

Yaamon frowned; he just knew he fouled up some words earlier that he could **say** perfectly fine, but **reading** them.... It's just the symbols Barb showed him seemed too disconnected from the actual things, their actual sounds, how could they possibly be the same?... "'—a continet entireeleee sure—sure—surrronded by water.'"

Yaamon sat back against Barbamon's chest and huffed, toying with the older Demon Lord's long beard.

Feeling stupider by the minute, the infant listened to Barb patiently correct his errors, emphasizing, "'Contine**n**t. Do you remember what that is?"

Yaamon frowned, trying to remember the exact words the book used.

"You can paraphrase that."

The infant's large green eyes stared blankly up at him.

"That is, explain in your own words—you don't need to quote the dictionary word for word in this case," clarified Barbamon.

"Oh. Okay. A continent's—" see, he knew it, he could say the word on his own just fine, reading the dumb thing was the problem "—just this really big important piece of land floating on the water."

"True enough," conceded Barbamon, as his finger slid down the page to the next word.

"Are there any continents here?" Yaamon asked, looking up at the Demon Lord again.

Barbamon shook his head, his hooked nose and beard shaking along with it, before explaining, "Not to my knowledge. There is still so much we do not know about the geography of this world—you do remember what 'geography' means?"

"Uh huh, it's learning all about how the world looks and, um...."

"And how life is distributed over the world, and what effects they have on the environment."

"Yeah, that. So you don't know about any continents here?"

"Yes, well, we do not know for sure if there are no continents in this world, they could simply be on another level, or even in between levels. And that, Little One," continued Barbamon with a certain thrill, "is why it's imperative that we continue mapping our surroundings."

"Could I go with one of the teams you and Lilith and the others send out?" Put in Yaamon, jumping up and down eagerly. "You guys sometimes go with them too, or just by yourselves—"

The infant immediately frowned when Barbamon waved a claw around airily, he knew what _that_ meant. As expected, the older Demon Lord just said, "When you evolve, when you're older—perhaps." Catching sight of Yaamon's annoyed look, he continued, "You'll certainly travel, of course, but helping with that task, well...."

After giving an uncomfortable cough, Barbamon said, "The Human World does have continents though."

"Really?"

Barbamon set the book aside and began to rise, silently signaling Yaamon to get off. He then led the infant past the telescope (the Demon Lord still didn't feel right about letting Lilithmon's hybrid look into that yet) and over to the window to get a clear view at the pulsating orb of the Human World. Yaamon quickly followed and jumped onto the ledge, uncomprehending of how Barbamon quietly slipped a claw out to steady him from falling down the wrong side. The infant's green eyes brightened up at the large circle in the sky above them; he loved looking up at it.

"Oh yes, seven great ones are in their oceans."

"Like there are seven of us?"

Barbamon favored the infant with a small, fond smile. "Indeed—and each one is just as different as the seven of us. They have different environments; different cultures and languages, different types of humans—again, like ourselves, and just like the other different categories of Digimon here, and our world's different levels." He then set his staff to the side to count on his claws: "Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Europe, North America, South America, and then there's Asia—that's where our race originated from, in its island country, Japan."

Yaamon tore his gaze away from the Human World and looked up at Barbamon, gaping; he had never heard this before.

Of course, the infant had asked where he had come from, and Lilithmon explained that, as well as their special connection to each other, how he shared half of her data, and that's why he would grow up into a Demon Lord too and bear all the responsibility and power that came with it. When he asked where she came from, she answered that too, though some parts made him feel like she was leaving something out on purpose. When he kept going farther, asking where her egg had come from, where all eggs came from, Lilith's answers had grown much vaguer. Here, Barb seemed to know it all.

"What do you mean, we came from there?"

"The humans in that continent, in that country, created Digimon."

Yaamon worked his mouth soundlessly for a few minutes before finally managing to ask, "They can _do_ that? _**How**_ can they do that? _**Why **_did they—"

"I haven't the faintest idea."

The infant Digimon got the unwelcome, sneaking feeling that Barb was lying. But he didn't dare challenge him on that; instead Yaamon asked, "How do you know? Do Lilith and Belph and the others know?"

"Research, and yes, they do," was all Barbamon offered the rest of that night.

**Notes: So I make the connection between Barbamon and reading for Impmon, 'cause later in the fic he'll be efficient at it—but in 'Tamers', he doesn't know how, and I'm just playing with the fanon idea that Barbamon ends up connected—at least on a subconscious level—to Impmon's reading issues in the 'future.' And Barbamon ends up being the vehicle for revealing the entire Demon Lords' general interest in gathering intelligence, including stuff about the Human World, and growing more interested in that world once they learn about their special connection to it. I can't wait to get more into the senior Demon Lords' thoughts on humans—they're rather different from the Devas' opinion… Again, I look forward to all your comments, they're always appreciated.**


	8. Chapter 7

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member--as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon.... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

**Notes: To Azure Neko: Thanks so much for your comments on the Digimon's written language being binary code/English, not Japanese characters, and that's why Impmon has issues with reading in the show. I'll have to add that detail in the last chapter or work it into a future chapter.**

Ch. 7

Yaamon understandably had reservations about the dungeons, Lucemon's 'lesson' still pretty fresh in his mind. But Leviamon took him past them, further down—actually, the infant Digimon wasn't sure if he was relieved or even more freaked out.

Pressing himself further into Leviamon's back, Yaamon noted with some trepidation how they were entering tunnels without lights as they went down, though he had to admit he could still see fairly well. Lilith said that a lot of Digimon had night vision; all the Demon Lords definitely did, him included, even if everyone admitted that he was different 'cause of the way he entered the world.

"Where are we going?" The infant Digimon asked again in a whisper, hoping that Leviamon would give some kinda answer this time, even a 'it's a surprise'—before, Levia just ignored him as he dragged him away from a fun game with Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon (he also gave them work to do, something to do with assisting Belphemon in something or other).

"To my private pool," replied Levia in a voice just as low. And soon the reptilian Demon Lord finally took him to ground that stopped sloping down, instead leveling out into a round craggy entrance they passed through. It led into a very large cave with spikes poking out of the ceiling and the floor, and in the center of it was an equally large lake.

Leviamon took Yaamon all the way to the water, the older Digimon's whole head now stretching out over it. Yaamon saw how dark and murky it was. If not for the occasional ripple, Yaamon would've thought it was just a big pit in the cave that stretched out into forever blackness.

The infant edged further down Leviamon's back, away from the lake.

"You can't do much in the way of swimming without arms and legs…just all about you can do is float right now," muttered Leviamon as he began vigorously shaking Yaamon off_. Oh no you don't_—Yaamon knew exactly what Leviamon intended to do. But as much as Yaamon tried, he ended up sliding right down Leviamon's long snout. When the Demon Lord spoke, the movement of his snout just made him slide down faster: "I suggest you start holding your breath now."

It was either that or cuss out the older Demon Lord before he inevitably splashed into the freakish pool. Yaamon chose to obey, his mouth closing with an audible click, and his eyes squeezing shut as his body slid right off Leviamon's snout and straight into the_ freakin' _freezing coldwater.

He plummeted, the slick overwhelming wet all around him, waving his ears around…and then he felt himself ascend. When he broke the surface with another and much more welcome splash, Yaamon hungrily gulped at the air. He slowly opened his eyes; he rapidly blinked as much water as he could out.

Then floating, he turned round to Leviamon and flashed him a big grin. _That was actually fun._ The Demon Lord merely bowed his head in reply.

The infant felt like he was levitating in the sky, his procreator had said Wizardmon could do that, he could fly, and of course she flew, and so did Daemon and Lucemon and a lot of the servants, did it feel like this for them too? So _great_?

After savoring the feeling for a moment, and dipping his mouth in the cool water to blow bubbles up, Yaamon turned back to Leviamon with a curious look.

"What if I don't get arms and legs when I evolve? Isn't there a Deva you and the others talked about that doesn't have any? Does that mean he can't swim?"

"Oh, _him_—no, no, he can swim all right." Leviamon then chuckled in a deep throaty way. "Actually, I do mostly use my tails to maneuver under water...." He regarded Yaamon with a speculative look. "Perhaps you can do more than just float...."

The infant eagerly tried to control his path in the water. He got mixed results; if he tried to hop as he did on land, he moved slowly forward and sorta in the direction he wanted.

But Levia nodded approvingly: "Impressive. I've never actually watched infant Digimon swim…fly, yes, but not swim...you've proved that apparently they can, in a fashion...."

Yaamon flushed with pleasure, for the moment forgetting his next question, about infant Digimon like him that could somehow fly for real in the sky.

"Play tag with me now!" Called out the infant, and when Leviamon arched a brow, he added in a quieter voice, "Please?"

The Demon Lord of Envy smoothly slipped into the water, and Yaamon happily shouted when the older Digimon playfully snapped his jaws close to the infant's ears.

Yaamon tried to swim faster, to keep ahead of Leviamon—but the older Digimon soon reared up ahead of him, and blew hard on the water. Yaamon's eyes widened as a small wave grew and soon flung him back and under the depths. When he floated back up, he determinedly made waves in Leviamon's direction. Unperturbed when his smaller waves failed to hit, Yaamon swam forward to close the distance between them. When the infant was close enough, Leviamon let Yaamon get in a few waves making contact before he retaliated with a thwack of his tail, sending another large wave over the younger Digimon.

Leviamon regarded the youngest Demon Lord with curiosity, as the small infant continued to laugh heartily when he broke the surface again.

"Why do you find this so amusing?"

"'Cause it's fun!"

The older Digimon rolled his eyes, deciding he wouldn't ask Yaamon to elaborate with probably inane reasons as to why it was so 'fun.' Still, Leviamon felt a slight humiliation over an inexplicable spark of…_jealousy_. He didn't care to follow his title to the letter all the time, but there it was: some shred of envy over how happy the infant was, the way he cultivated such innocent pleasure with ease. Levia could not remember what it was like, to be a child…and now here he was, craving to know what it had been like....

Shaking himself, Levia ordered, "Now I need you to focus on this one truth: you can breathe underwater. If you believe in that, it will happen, and you won't need to close your mouth. Understand?" All of Yaamon nodded. "I want you to practice that right now, concentrate--" The infant Digimon closed his eyes, brow furrowed. Satisfied, Leviamon plopped him down with his claw. He held him down for a moment, making sure the infant would stay under the surface, then let go.

When he felt no strain, Yaamon opened up his mouth experimentally, and felt real pleased when he found Levia was right, he didn't have to breathe at all underwater. It was real weird and a little scary but even more fun trying to swim around with his eyes closed—

"You can open your eyes underwater," remarked Leviamon airily from above, his voice filtering through the water clearly enough.

Slowly Yaamon cracked one eye open, then the other. It disturbed him a little how his night vision seemed worth squat here—all he saw in the water was inky blackness all around him. He swam in a circle right under Leviamon's belly, rubbed against his feet in an attempt to make the older Digimon laugh (he did not), then swam back up with a splash.

"Is there anything in your pool? I just saw a lot of dark...."

Levia grinned, shaking his head: "No, just you and me right now. I did tell you it was private."

Yaamon's brow furrowed. "So is it just like a real hole dug out of the ground? Or does it lead to another tunnel?"

"Why, it leads to many underwater tunnels, some leading to a library Barbamon favors--"

"There's another library besides Barb's here in the fortress?"

"--yes, with some Mokumon living there, along with a very interesting creature…a spiritual manifestation of a human."

"_What_?" Yaamon swam closer to the Demon Lord of Envy, fixing him with a wildly curious look.

Levia chuckled. "It's the truth."

The infant glared at him, pouting. "I never thought you were lying!"

The serpentine Digimon blinked, then growled; Lilith's child was being too trusting, the little fool. He went down to a gentle purring when he noticed the startled look on Yaamon's face, struggling between nervousness and fear.

"Admittedly, it _is_ a confusing matter. The human's--Shibumi's--physical body is of course back in his own world. It's in a coma--a very deep, a very serious sleep, unlike whatever Belph gets up to. Comas only occur when you are grievously injured. But somehow, his consciousness traveled here, and formed a transparent approximation—" catching the puzzled look on the infant's face, he clarified "—that is, a transparent image of his physical body—a spiritual manifestation, as I said."

"So…so he's see-through and stuff? There's nothing to touch? Like the ghosts and spirits Pumpkininmon and Gotsumon tell stories about?"

"Exactly." Levia huffed out a contemplative breath of multi-colored smoke, ignoring the way it made Yaamon cough a little as it blew into his face. "We've—well, not Belphemon so much—tried talking to him, but it's a difficult matter. He does sleep often in the library, in a way similar to Belph--perhaps if the buffoon were to go at all, he'd work up a rapport with him over that common ground. Anyway, even when he does talk, he's not the most lucid fellow, tending to ramble and such. Barbamon's the best at dealing with him--"

"Figures," muttered Yaamon.

Levia nodded his head, "Barb can be rather predictable at times." He stared at the infant, and then said, "He told me that he informed you about humans creating Digimon."

"Uh huh, but he didn't say--"

"This Shibumi claims to be one of the humans creating us, and our world."

Yaamon's green eyes were almost comically wide.

"Did he say why he made us--?"

"No, that's still what we--Barb mostly--are trying to figure out." Levia felt a quiet sense of satisfaction when the infant Digimon had a skeptical look; perhaps he wasn't too much of a little fool after all. He did have potential, nothing had changed that.

"Back to the tunnels--not all of them lead to Shibumi's library; some connect to each other in loops, creating an entire labyrinth."

That caught Yaamon's interest, and he pushed back thoughts about human creators and this Shibumi guy to the back of his mind. "Could I play in the maze?"

"No, no—I'm afraid that's for special guests."

The infant felt a little wary with the way Leviamon said those last two words.

"…Like prisoners?" Yaamon blinked, scarcely believing he had actually voiced that out loud. Why couldn't he ever shut up?

The Demon Lord chuckled, then suddenly and briefly nuzzled the infant. Yaamon knew he was trying to be gentle in that quick clear show of warm regard, but the force of the action still carried him up in the air for a moment, then splash back down with a quiet little plop—regardless, the infant flushed again with pleasure.

"You've inherited your procreator's cleverness."

And as Leviamon left the lake, with Yaamon slowly trailing behind him, the Demon Lord corrected the infant's language, "Though I see them more as 'prey,' if anything."

**Notes: And now I connect Levia with swimming! Which is kinda obvious given everything about him, but I had to go there, especially since I really enjoy that sweet scene when everything's so much more innocent in 'Tamers,' where Impmon plays with Guilmon, Terriermon, and Calumon in the water, so it was nice connecting that to this in a roundabout way (even if in the future it might make things more twisted). I had to re-watch season 3's ep. 32, "Shibumi Speaks" for some details (especially about swimming in Tamers' Digital World) and a lot of inspiration. For canon-compliant AU purposes, I don't remember ever seeing Impmon and Shibumi meet in the show. And I think Shibumi wouldn't feel the need to divulge info on every encounter with every Digimon he ever had while in a coma, and I don't think their identity as Demon Lords would really register with him, since in the ep. he does seem pretty out of it when ghost-like. Though more likely, the Demon Lords haven't divulged their full identity yet, despite all the pride they do share, they tend to consistently value efficiency more (though Lucemon is the most conspicuous prideful of course, most consumed by it).**


	9. Chapter 8

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member--as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon.... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

**Notes: I've altered Daemon's appearance—still based on canon though. I'm going with the images we have of him in robes and a hood with only glowing eyes, but his wings still sprout from his back. The image can be found on his wikimon profile.**

Ch.8

"You're not seriously considering this?" Lilithmon looked to her brothers with not even the pretense at polite disbelief.

"It would be disrespectful to decline the Floramons' invitation—" began Barbamon, fingering his staff without looking his sister in the eye.

"Please, they're just trying to court our favor, and with soup of all things!..."

"I've heard it's really quite an excellent dish," put in Daemon dryly.

With mirthful wide eyes, Lucemon asked, "I thought that's why we took over their little establishment in the first place—"

The Demon Lord of Pride abruptly stopped to chuckle appreciatively at the way Lilith's Nazar arm flexed compulsively within her sleeve.

"Is _that_ what we were doing with their village?" Belphemon muttered, small and reclining lazily on Leviamon's back.

Lilithmon whirled around on him. As Lilith advanced on Belph, Levia looked pointedly away, wishing for the thousandth time that the Demon Lord of Sloth did not favor him so as his personal palanquin.

"What _you_ were supposed to be doing," she snarled in a low voice, leaning into Belphemon's deceptively soft face. "Not just breeze in and mow down every conceivably useful thing without even leaving any of our forces behind to finalize our control!..."

Her jaw clenched and a vein began to throb somewhere from behind her hair when the currently smaller Demon Lord yawned in her face. He replied, "Not make an example of them?"

"_That_ was only the first part."

"Well then," began Leviamon, interrupting Lilithmon and Belphemon as he turned his head back to his sister, the gesture making the one brother on his back shuffle around into a more comfortable position. "All the more reason for us to visit their village, isn't it? Increase their morale and what not—persuade them that it'll be better for them in the long run to follow our lead."

"We could use some good PR," added Lucemon with an airy wave of his hand.

"We could divine what they specifically want…or what they really desire," Daemon said in too casual a voice.

Barbamon turned to the Demon Lord of Wrath with interest: "You suspect a hidden agenda?" Barb thoughtfully stroked his beard, saying, "Their allies, the Mushroomon, have been oddly excluded from this invitation, and I know Belphemon didn't annihilate all of them...."

Lilithmon flatly glared at the two, then muttered, "He's just hoping for the chance of wine...."

"Not true—I _do_ want to try the soup."

Lilithmon muttered something else under her breath as she rolled her eyes, but neither of her brothers caught the words. She shot one glance around the makeshift circle of her fellow Demon Lords.

"Seems I've been outvoted this time."

&&&

After her grudging assent and their impromptu meeting adjourned, Lilithmon was in another argument with Daemon alone.

"Absolutely not."

"It would do him some good—"

"He hasn't even evolved yet, I'm not taking him along—"

"Have you considered _that's_ precisely the attitude that's keeping him from evolving?"

"Excuse me?"

"I know he's your first and will probably be your only offspring—"

"Let's _not_ get into Barbamon's half-baked idea of repeating the hybridization procedure that resulted in Yaamon's egg—"

"And let's not get distracted!" Daemon stepped directly in Lilithmon's path, and though she shot him an exasperated look, the fair looking Digimon stayed put.

"Now Sister, don't you think that—at the end of the day—you're being too overprotective of Yaamon?"

Lilithmon gave a dark, self-aware laugh: "If this is me being overprotective, I daresay if I were to turn 'tough,' it would be an interesting sight to behold...."

"Indeed," replied Daemon as he gave a curt, mocking nod. In a more serious, persuasive voice, he continued, "We'll all be there, in a village Belphemon thoroughly subdued and demoralized—"

"And made desperate."

Within the shadows of his hood, Daemon smirked slightly. "So you _do_ entertain the possibility of there being more to the Floramons' invitation?"

"It would not do well to be careless."

"To be one iota less paranoid, more like."

"Now _you_ are overly interested in semantics...."

The Demon Lord of Wrath barked out a short laugh, and then continued, "I was under the impression that you wanted Yaamon to follow in your footsteps." Lilithmon opened her mouth, but Daemon cut her off, risking her ire to say, "This is part of what we do, is it not? It would be good for him to see how we handle our business. Not to mention the fresh air—"

"The courtyard—"

"Still all within our fortress. The boy should see a little more of what's outside. He'll enjoy it, and hasn't he been doing better lately? Maybe not as well as you hoped, but still, he's determined. A little reward, a little incentive, would go a long way...."

Lilithmon sighed. Then she slowly nodded her head, but immediately stabbed a threatening finger into Daemon's chest. "_**None**_ of the wine."

"That can wait until he's older," Daemon agreed smoothly.

&&&

Yaamon had been excited about his very first time out of the fortress, but rapidly deflated as he looked around the burnt down forest and the small empty shells of buildings with solemn green eyes.

"This place is a dump," muttered the infant sadly. He shuffled around in Lilith's grip, and then looked over her shoulder to Belph atop Levia, trailing behind them.

A silent Barbamon, probably busy with some personal theory or observation, was ahead of his procreator and him, and in front of the Demon Lord of Greed was Daemon and Lucemon talking quietly. Yaamon hoped they weren't talking about Lilith. Earlier, it had looked like she and Dae were going to start a huge argument when he remarked that she didn't have to carry Yaamon, they hadn't sparred at all today so he wouldn't be too tired or injured to do so. (Lilith had said he could have a day off because of the occasion.) The infant agreed; he felt he could hop by himself and keep up with the other Demon Lords' longer strides—but he didn't dare voice that after the scathing look Lilith gave Dae. She shot off a clipped retort about 'safety,' then there was Dae's pointed reply about 'paranoia' in unflattering tones. A few more short angry words had passed between them, before Lucemon—of all monsters—had finally dragged Daemon away to the front with him. Granted, Luce was excitedly telling Dae about some exploit he did the other day.

"Belph, did you have to wreck this place so much?" Yaamon whispered his question, but he was certain the Demon Lord of Sloth had heard him, even though he continued to be curled up with his eyes shut on Levia's back. Just when the infant thought Belphemon was just going to ignore him, the older Digimon answered in just one word: "Yes."

Lilith and the others had tried to explain to him what happened to the Floramons' village, what they did and why, the necessity of it, what they were doing there now, blah blah blah—it was all still very confusing to the infant Digimon. They had said the Floramon and their friends, the Mushroomon, didn't want to listen to them. Then they—that is, Belph, representing all of the Demon Lords—made an Example of them. And now they were going to let the Floramon try pleasing them with a feast, after having been made an Example by them, and they were accepting and trying to be gentler in telling them they should follow their Orders always.

Yaamon turned around at Lilith's tap on his ear; he saw a number of small red blossom-headed Digimon walk forward with purple flowers forming their arms, and the rest of their bodies colored a light green. They all knelt before them in a triangle, the one at the head saying, "Welcome my Lords."

&&&

The group of Floramon was able to fit most of the Demon Lords into their former grand hall, the Great Tree, which had remained mostly intact despite Belphemon's swift assault. Lilithmon and Barbamon were able to stay in their highest levels, but Dae and Lucemon devolved into their lower, smaller forms as Patamon and—Yaamon couldn't help but stare at Luce. He still looked like a human, but this time like a child one, though he remained larger than Yaamon himself. He still had his twelve wings, but they were all white now—most of Luce was white now, with what looked like a small white robe covering his body, his dark half pretty much gone. He was still blonde, with pale skin, but now he had big gold bracelets and anklets, and there were purple squiggly marks tattooed on half his face, down half his chest, and on the arm attached to that side.

"Don't stare," snapped Lilith, and Yaamon obediently looked away. Dae and Luce had devolved to make room so that at least half of Leviamon could fit into the Floramons' Great Tree. Except for Levia who coiled comfortably on the ground and Belph who stayed on his back, Lilith, Yaamon, Barb, Dae, and Luce sat at the Floramons' wooden table.

The purple infant sipped from his bowl (he didn't need a spoon anyway) from his place right on the table (he didn't need a chair either) and his eyes brightened. "This is really good!" He told the Floramon standing by, effectively popping their nervous energy. All the Floramon bowed, saying "Thank you, our young Lord is too kind," with an eerie synchronized tone.

"I wish I could have it all the time." But his procreator had told him before they left for the Floramons' feast that Digimon didn't need material food to survive—it was just an extra something they could enjoy. Then Barb had remarked that the situation might change for Digimon in the Human World, but immediately shut up from his impending babble when Lilith had said (in a warning tone) it was only a theory though. "Does it have a name?"

Presumably the head Floramon—she was the one that greeted them and directed all the plant Digimon in seating and serving them—replied, "Oh, it's just called Fruit Soup—simple, direct. But it's our specialty."

"Dae told me so."

The lead Flora pursed her lips, and then asked the infant, "Would you like to see how it's made?"

Yaamon hopped up and down eagerly.

The other Floramon giggled, and the leader said, amused, "Is that a 'yes?'"

"Uh huh!"

"All right," began the chief Flora, and that seemed to be a signal for the rest of her group to go to the baskets alongside the walls, and retrieve shiny golden fruit from them. One grabbed two, handing the second to Flora, who said, "First, we place the fruit inside our head—"

They bent down a little, and their blossom heads unfolded, and they dropped the gold fruit inside.

"—now all together—"

They danced and sang in a moving circle around the Demon Lords' table, making sure not to tread on Leviamon as they went. Yaamon watched with interest, and noticed that though the older Demon Lords weren't as fascinated as him, they did seem somewhat amused by the dance. They were much more aligned with Yaamon's interests when the Floramon stopped and leaned down into their bowls, pouring more soup into them from the red tips of what was equivalent to their noses.

The lead Flora leaned back, satisfied. "They're an ancient ceremonial dance and chant that blesses the food, gives it warmth."

After delightedly slurping at the next helping of soup, Yaamon straightened up and said, "Thanks!"

The Floramon blinked at that—then quickly bowed, and the Flora-in-charge said, "Thank you young Lord, but there's no need to show us gratitude. It is an honor and our duty to serve you and your kin."

Not sure how to reply to that, the infant sipped more at his soup, watching with curious eyes as the Floramon went to the older Demon Lords, checking on their satisfaction.

&&&

It was late, and Lilith wouldn't let Yaamon leave the table or the Great Tree at all, while her and all the adults kept talking on and on, and recently over goblets filled with a deep crimson drink she said he couldn't even try, not until he was older.

His procreator let him rest on her lap, with his eyes closed. But Yaamon was still awake and only pretending. He wondered if this is what Belph felt like 99% of the time—it was still hard to imagine his friend uprooting trees in a place like this, even if he moved super fast. He just seemed too lazy for that, and not cruel—

Yaamon tried to keep his ears from pricking too much when some of the adult talk became more interesting and caught his attention.

"Now my dear, what is it you want exactly?" That was Barbamon's voice.

A brief silence, until finally: "I shall be direct then, my Lords. We were hoping that you would be gracious enough to allow the Lilymon in your employ to come and help rejuvenate our forest. We've heard of her powers in that area, and they sound—"

"Sufficient for your purposes," said Leviamon, making his voice loud so as to be heard over Belph's snoring. When the Demon Lord of Sloth had started that, Yaamon cracked an eye open at the sound of one of the Floramons stifling a shriek—he saw that one with a hand over her mouth, stopping herself in time. Yet the fellow plant Digimon next to her still lightly punched her shoulder, glaring at her. Yaamon saw through one eye how panicked all the Floramon had looked for a moment—they knew exactly who had made that sudden noise—and watched their quick and jerky attempts to go back into something looking calm and servile.

"Yes my Lord—would you ple—"

Then the infant felt things start going very fast. There was a loud boom happening the same time as the Great Tree began to shake wildly, and Yaamon's eyes shot open, ditching his charade. Before he could do or say or really comprehend anything, Lilith picked him up with her good arm, and everyone immediately made their way out after Leviamon slithered out with Belphemon in tow. When Lilith took him out, Yaamon saw Levia (with Belph on top of his head) snap out both his tails, bringing down four purple-and-magenta-and-white Digimon crashing to the ground, shaken from their meager shelter in the bare, skeletal trees.

The Demon Lord of Envy retreated a little, to give them space, letting their assailants rise up, and Yaamon blinked, surprised to find that they were also some sort of plant Digimon too. Each of them had soft squishy, kinda triangular shapes colored purple with yellow spots on top of their white body, and they had magenta boots and gloves. The eyes beneath their purple cap were dark beads glittering with a hate approaching the one Crowmon had once possessed against Lucemon.

The chief Flora immediately shouted in a shocked, pained yowl, "_Mushroomon_?! What are you—? You said you were leaving—?"

"Rather much for an ultimately futile ambush, wouldn't you think?" Commented Dae in a weird warping voice as he shifted from Patamon to his highest level as the Demon Lord of Wrath. The eyes from within his hood glowed at the Floramon, who had gathered together in between the relatively united front of Demon Lords, and the Mushroomon.

Flora's eyes widening, and with the rest of her soup chefs starting to tremble, she stepped firmly in front of them and found her voice, protesting, "No, no--I swear my Lords, we had nothing to do with this, we had no idea, we thought our friends here had left us, that's why we didn't include them in the invitation, we had no intention of--"

Her voice hitched and stopped altogether when Belphemon slid down Leviamon's back and off his tails onto the ground. Her fellow Floramon huddled closer together and shivered more, and the Mushroomon edged closer to them as well, assuming battle stances--but Belph walked past them and straight to Lilith, who deposited Yaamon in his waiting arms. She left both of them, approaching the Floramon and Mushroomon.

"Wait, what are you gonna—?" but Belph's hand over his mouth cut off Yaamon's question. Belphemon took him back further behind, almost back into the still intact Great Tree (it was surprisingly sturdy). The rest of the Demon Lords advanced closer on all the smaller plant Digimon.

One of the Mushroomon snarled, "Yeah, _they_ had nothing to do with this...."

Another Mushroomon yelled at the Floramon, "You would give in to them?! To _**him**_?!"

"You throw a _party_ for them, after what their monster did?!"

"What about those who didn't survive?! You'd provide _him_ with even more nourishment—wasn't their data enough?!"

"A feast over their graves--!"

"_**Silence**_!" The woman's command had not been his procreator's, but Chief Flora's. Except for Belph, all the older Demon Lords turned to her with differing levels of undisguised surprise, and Yaamon's eyes widened and stared at her. He couldn't believe something so authoritative and harsh-sounding could come from someone who talked to him in tones both gentle and deferential.

Lucemon, still in his childish form, gleefully remarked, "_Ooh_, dinner and a show!"

The lead Flora seemed not to hear, advancing toward the Mushroomon with an angry step, her voice rising as she continued, "This is for everyone still _alive._" Flora's arms stretched out, encompassing what was left of their village, and Yaamon looked around, shrinking as he was reminded again of how sad and pathetic everything looked. "For our home, the forest we lived in and tried to protect for so long--I'll do _anything_ to return it to its former glory--"

"Even become their slaves?"

"If we must! To survive, we'll--"

"Better to **die**, than to--"

"_That's not what everyone wants_!"

Leviamon blew out a cloud of smoke shifting from color to color, and the arguing plant Digimon froze, as if remembering who was with them.

"I daresay you Mushroomon are merely…jealous," said Levia as he advanced on the plant Digimon, who managed to stand their ground. Yaamon saw that the child Lucemon was about to laugh, he really did have a weakness for puns—but Dae managed to discreetly stamp on Luce's foot from under the cover of his robes. Luce bit his lip, and then flew into the air, shooting a wounded glance at the Demon Lord of Wrath. Lilith rolled her eyes and Barb just shook his head at the two.

The Demon Lord of Envy continued, "Think about it—before we came along, _you_ were the ones who defended these wretched Floramon. And now here we are, offering them better protection."

"…Your **monster** destroyed their village and many of their kin." The one Mushroomon who had dared to answer didn't speak of his brothers' own losses, or how the village was theirs too.

"And since we're powerful enough to do that, we could surely turn our considerable energies into purposes more beneficial to them. _We_ wouldn't crumble so easily against enemies, now would we?"

Before that Mushroomon could even feel a volatile anger, there was shouting, shrieking, the sounds of Digimon falling down—it looked down in shock, straight down at the barbed tails sticking through his chest. Leviamon had snapped them out, knocking the Floramon out of the way to get to that one Mushroomon.

Yaamon was snarling and trying to get Belph's arm off his face, he couldn't _see_ anything at all—as his ears picked up the eerie silence, it registered with the infant that the older Digimon probably had a reason for shielding his sight. _What happened--?_

"And our monster's name is Belphemon, the Demon Lord of Sloth," said Leviamon in that same level tone as he harshly ripped out his tails, and the Mushroomon immediately dispersed into data that he swiftly absorbed.

The remaining Mushroomon just as quickly gave a synchronized roar that shook the purple infant to its core, it sounded so sad and angry and hurt—he struggled instinctively to see all the same (even if maybe he shouldn't) and finally Belph's arm fell away from his eyes, only for them to squint at a horribly bright light.

When that sharp glow soon faded, Yaamon saw in place of the Mushroomon one, much larger Digimon that looked like one of the village's broken trees come to life to settle a grudge.

"How--what--?"

"Ask later," murmured Belph in a tired voice as he carried him further away.

The humongous tree Digimon gave another agonized shout as it lunged toward Lilith and the other Demon Lords. The infant felt a ridiculous jolt of fear, even though Belph acted as if not much was happening at all.

The Floramon seemed to have a more tangible fear, as they ran to the Demon Lords and threw themselves before them, begging, "Please don't be too harsh with them, please spare them--"

Yaamon's eyes widened as he realized his fear was totally stupid, and so utterly misplaced.

Leviamon flung all the Floramon away with a distracted wave of his tails, as Barbamon walked ahead of him, raising his staff. Lilith, Dae, and Luce retreated with a patient, almost bored air, just waiting for the inevitable outcome.

"Wait, do you have to--?!" the purple infant's voice grew muffled when Belph's hand clamped over his mouth, and he struggled and even bit furiously at the offending appendage, but the older Demon Lord wouldn't let go.

Yaamon's concentration drifted, his eyes widening as the head of Barbamon's staff glowed, and fire shot out, slamming into the attacking tree Digimon, igniting it--

The purple infant heard seconds of horrible screaming before Belph clamped his hands over both his ears, saw even less of the tree Digimon writhing, burning on the ground--Belphemon immediately took him to the innermost part of the Great Tree. In the older Demon Lord's attempt to completely cut off Yaamon's senses for the moment, he still kept his hands over the smaller Digimon's ears, but also had him completely bury his face in his chest. The infant ended up helping him with that goal; Yaamon just tried concentrating on the feeling of Belphemon's heart beat vibrating so slowly through his fur....

When Belphemon finally took him back outside, the only difference to the scene before was a dark smear of ash on the ground, and the sobbing, wailing Floramon. The young Digimon couldn't stop staring at the black mark on the ground, or shut out the sounds of their grief.

"Yaamon," called Lilith in an empty voice.

And for some reason, Belph's arms tightened around him. The infant blinked, and then looked up at the Demon Lord of Sloth, confused. He received no inkling of an answer from his face, it was as closed off and sleepy looking as ever. Just as suddenly as the older Digimon's grip had tightened around him, it slackened and Belph let him hop to his procreator.

"You were questioning me." The infant absent-mindedly noted how Lilith wasn't asking, it was a statement.

"I was…I didn't understand…did you have to--you didn't have to, did you--you could've just beat 'em up, not--"

It was too sudden: Lilithmon's foot stomping down on him, Yaamon didn't even have a fast enough reflex to shout. He felt the ground beneath him cave in a little, a small shallow hole shaped around his body, and dimly heard the Floramons' gasps, and to his amazement, heard at least one of them swear a very foul word, if he had used that, his procreator would be mad with him, if she wasn't already very mad with him right now—

No matter how much he really didn't want to, he whimpered when she ground him further into the dirt, increased the pressure—at least the dirt in his mouth muffled the stupid pathetic sound he made.

But then just as suddenly as she struck, Lilith lifted her foot and he struggled up, sneezing and coughing out the dirt—he winced when he spat out some blood. His green eyes weakly, blearily blinked up at her. The infant then felt he'd rather have his eyes squeezed shut against the dirt again, she looked so furious, but he knew he couldn't look away now, not when she let him up specifically so that he could meet her eyes—

"You do not question _me_."

Immediately, Yaamon was confused, and angrily so. That wasn't fair, she'd let him ask questions before, though she didn't always answer them, but she never hit him over those—why was this different, what had he done wrong—?

Oddly enough, Lucemon's remark started to clarify that for the infant. "Not in front of company, at least," said the Demon Lord of Pride in a light, cheerful voice.

Without looking at Lucemon, Lilith stretched out her good arm toward him, and shot out a bolt of crackling energy stabbing straight through his shoulder.

Yaamon jumped at that; he knew Lilith was always cross with Luce, and would threaten him, but the infant had never seen her actually strike at him before. Yaamon tried not to stare when Luce just laughed and poked at the wound in his shoulder, while Dae and the others just shook their heads, exasperated.

"Go back to Belphemon now, say your farewells--you'll see him later soon," ordered Lilithmon, not even bothering to grace Lucemon with a verbal response or acknowledge him in any other way. Yaamon didn't bother asking another question about her confusing words on Belph. He did an odd limping hop as he returned to the Demon Lord of Sloth.

Then Lilithmon calmly turned to the Floramon, who were all watching Yaamon's retreat with appalled eyes.

"Belphemon and Leviamon will stay with you until Lilymon arrives, accompanied with a team to assist with repairs and defense."

The Floramon looked up at Lilith, and the rest of the Demon Lords, in disbelief.

"The defense-minded portion of her team will remain afterwards to protect your home. Our soldiers will stay here indefinitely until further notice."

The plant Digimon continued to stare; then with trembling knees, they knelt down, and the chief Flora choked out, "Thank you my Lords…for your generosity...."

Yaamon stopped watching, and said a very quiet good-bye to Belph. The Demon Lord of Sloth ran a soothing hand in between his bruised and aching ears, and the infant tried not to imagine that same soft hand tearing through live Digimon here....

&&&

On the way home, Lilithmon explained, "Multiple Digimon can combine together to evolve into one higher level Digimon."

"Oh," was all Yaamon said, still not in the mood to ask anything anymore, not even to wonder if he needed others like that to help him evolve. Besides, he had a feeling his procreator would say no, he could evolve on his own, he was a freakin' Demon Lord after all. Superior over everyone, for all his current weakness—she had said that before.

&&&

"Well, he _did_ get a better idea of what we do."

Lilith still refused to speak with Daemon the day after.

**Notes: …So this ended up being Yaamon/Impmon's Suckiest First Field Trip Outside Ever. I wanted to emphasize how the senior Demon Lords aren't really all that nice to anyone outside their circle, even Belphemon can be particularly ruthless, and Yaamon/Impmon's struggle with realizing and dealing with that will be central in this fic. Again, complete images of Floramon, Mushroomon, and the Woodmon they evolved into can be found on the Digimon Wiki. Lucemon's child form can be found under his Frontier listing in the Digimon Wiki. The Floramons' village and the Mushroomon were inspired by, of all things, a Frontier episode. It's not specifically mentioned within the fic, but the Mushroomon evolved into Woodmon. Comments are always appreciated and wanted.**


	10. Chapter 9

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member--as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon.... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

**ETA: Expanded notes at the bottom, and details tweaked within the narrative.**

**ETA Notes: Credit to Azure Neko's comment on ch. 7 for this new story detail: "He's learning to read English or binary code, not Japanese characters. Binary code was invented in the US and is based on the English alphabet. After all, binary code appeared in the series when the Devas hacked Hypnos in a couple of episodes. It makes sense to think that it is the common written language for Digimon."**

Ch. 9

Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon had left the fortress with Lilymon's team for the Floramons' ruined village days ago, but Yaamon still felt frustrated and angry with them, and plagued by an awful guilt and anxiety at the thought of the soup makers. In his room, he stacked up the blocks Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon had given him, and angrily spat out rolling balls of darkness at the block pillars, knocking them down one by one. Eventually Yaamon began to lighten up as the thought occurred to him, that maybe enough time had passed and Lilith had cooled down, maybe she would say 'yes' and play with him this time.

"Will you _please_ play with me before we train today?"

"I don't have time for such infantile behavior."

"It's not 'infantile,' it's—"

"I said '_no_,' Yaamon."

The infant looked up at her with hurt eyes, into her hard glare—which he soon returned with a glare of his own and a clenched jaw, then he quickly turned his back on her and hopped out of the lab as fast as he could, leaving her with her dumb ol' computers and all the other stupid equipment, he didn't care if she never played with him ever.

Belph was another disappointment.

"_You __**said**__ you were more attentive_!"

No matter how much Yaamon shouted at him, Belphemon continued to snore. When the infant rammed into his side and the Demon Lord of Sloth still didn't reply, Yaamon whirled around to leave, cursing under his breath. Before his departure, the infant Digimon paused before Belphemon's shelves of fragile art, considered shoving them down 'cause he was so mad, to finally get Belph's attention....

Instead Yaamon hurried out of the room.

Barbamon was too busy with his books and his telescope and his research, and his assistants Bokomon and Neemon were too busy helping him with all of that. Leviamon was out with Lucemon somewhere. Daemon was gone too. Yaamon couldn't even get to know more of the servants; they all seemed just as overwhelmed with pressing business to conduct.

Eventually, Yaamon settled on a game he didn't need anyone else for, they'd just slow him down anyway: he pretended that he was like Lilith when she was Gatomon and busy tracking down bandits, just like in the bedtime story she told him about, though he wasn't about to deliver his quarry over to lords who'd make an 'example' of them. The game took him all over the fortress, high and low, then back to high as he ventured up another tower, doing his best to sneak around with an observant eye and a slow, cautious hop.

He stilled when he heard Lilith's Gatomon voice. Yaamon's eyes had widened—no way, it wasn't time yet, he kept track this time!

With some trepidation, the infant followed her voice. His worry was replaced with curiosity as it led him to a door that was cracked open to let out some illumination. Yaamon crept toward the door, and did his best to quietly open it up just a little bit wider to let him in—the infant flinched when it creaked loudly.

He froze when Daemon immediately turned around, his wings flaring, with a lighted screen behind him casting weird shadows and turning his whole taller figure into a very odd silhouette.

"…I thought you were out," was the first thing Yaamon said.

Daemon shrugged: "I returned late last night."

"Oh." Yaamon hopped further into the room. "Where were you anyway?"

"At the canyons, observing—well, what seems to be volcanic material...."

"The pink bubbles."

Daemon rolled his eyes. "I see you've been keeping up with the gossip around here."

"Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon told me—" Then the infant stopped, wondering if he should've said that, would it get his friends in trouble? He quickly switched the topic, to his earlier and still pressing curiosity: "I heard Lilith's voice coming from here, but she was Gatomon, and it's not time for us to train yet and—"

The infant paused as he saw his procreator in her Champion form on the screen behind the Demon Lord of Wrath.

"Okay, you're just watching a recording of her…_why_ are you watching a recording of Lilith?" The infant asked, looking up at Daemon.

The older Digimon regarded him quietly, before giving another shrug and muttering, "Why not? You're not getting any younger. Or older." He shook his head. "I never understood how that human phrase went...."

Instead he offered a claw to Yaamon, and he hopped onto it, letting Daemon set him down on a table.

"What are you talking about?"

"About letting you watch something."

Daemon turned to a computer, clicking a button that made the action stop on the screen—Yaamon's eyes widened at the illustration it froze on. The image looked just like what his procreator described her lost and best friend as—

"Wizardmon?..."

The older Demon Lord chuckled: "Knew you'd appreciate that."

With another push of a key the screen changed into a different setting, and Yaamon terrified himself with how he had jumped toward it and wailed in a very desperate voice, "Wait!"

Daemon shook his head, "Relax Pipsqueak, you'll see him again real soon...."

The infant was feeling too overwhelmed to snap at the hated nickname, instead settling back slowly on the table.

"This is uncut footage...."

An odd song played and there was a rapid fire of images of Digimon and humans (like in the picture books)—there was Daemon on the screen. Yaamon's eyes widened; it wasn't exactly him, it was just his Rookie level as Patamon, but still.... His eyes positively widened when Daemon's Rookie form turned into this really white human-looking Digimon with feathery wings, instead of the Demon Lord of Wrath's darker, cloaked form with webbed wings. He shot a look at Dae, who watched the screen with a very contemplative gaze.

Yaamon slowly turned back to the screen too, where letters crossed it, and he recognized them with a jolt—they were Japanese characters Barbamon had shown him before, promising to teach him how to read it after he had learned their native Basic writing system, though he mentioned that for whatever reason (probably because they originated in Japan) all Digimon could at least speak the language well enough. The other word didn't last long enough for him to sound out though. Then a disembodied voice narrated a lot of confusing stuff like the Eighth Child and Myotismon's familiar name—Yaamon was completely lost.

"I know at this point, you've no idea what's going on—"

"Yup," agreed the infant in a quiet mutter.

"But that's not the point right now—I don't think you're particularly interested in all the details anyway—just watch."

Now thoroughly confused, Yaamon tried to obey. More words flashed across the screen above a shadow of his procreator's feline Champion form, and they flashed away just as quickly, leaving no time to sound them all out.

"Some of this never happened, some might've--Barb has this rather convoluted theory about it all coming true in an alternate dimension...."

"I--wha--I thought you weren't gonna go into details yet--?"

"Barb told you how humans created Digimon, yes?"

Yaamon stiffened and stared at the older Demon Lord. "Yeah," he began, "he said they did, but he didn't say how or why--"

"This recording is one of many chapters out of what we call the Prognosticus--a rather ostentatious name for human entertainment, isn't it?"

"Daemon!" The infant snapped at him, completely turning away from the screen of humans and an orange dinosaur Digimon that made no sense to him. "Just stop the show and keep explainin', I can't watch and listen at the same time--"

"Yes...a 'show' indeed," muttered the Demon Lord thoughtfully. Yaamon belatedly counted himself lucky the older Digimon didn't react badly to what Lilith would've certainly considered 'blatant disrespect' on the infant's part. Daemon acquiesced and clicked a key, and the screen paused once more.

"Okay, okay, so what's this Pr--"

"This recording was made by humans as some sort of theatrical play for them to watch."

"Um, theatr--?"

"A theatrical play is like acting out one of the stories Lilith tells you, like your games of pretend."

"Oh, okay--" Yaamon's brow burrowed. "Wait, is that what you meant before--?" The infant shook his head. "The--this recording here's a fake? Just a made-up story?" The infant blinked, flushing, embarrassed when he said, "Guess them being just moving colored pictures would be the first clue that it's fake...."

"It's a type of theatrical style humans employ, where they make their drawings move, and give them voices, music, and other sound effects, to tell a story. Now, regarding the whole issue of truth--as I admittedly rambled about earlier: some of it **is** factual. They are accurate with their visual representations of all the different types of Digimon they show. The play gets a fair amount of their history right with Lord Myotismon. But the way they depict the geography of our world isn't quite accurate, and they seem to leave out glaring parts of our current culture. And as for the humans, the rest of the Lords and I are fairly certain the ones the play focuses on don't exist. It's the same with the crests they possess, and their Digivices—basically the same thing as D-Arcs."

"They have crests too?"

"They are 'made up,' as you put it. The only crests we know that truly exist are our own."

Yaamon almost asked what the hell a Digivice was, and more about D-Arcs—Barb had only given him a brief and confusing explanation about the small gadgets—but he just turned back to the screen, giving it a hard stare.

"The plot of the humans' play just involves a lot of questing among these young Digimon and human children 'destined' to work together to protect both the Digital and Human worlds."

The infant chewed his lip, then turned back to Daemon: "The way you talk about it—why's it so important to you?..."

"I should think it obvious. A world away, home to the different race that created us, also makes a show that has some eerie similarities to real life here? How can it not escape our attention once we notice it?"

Daemon then leaned down, resting his elbows on the table and on both sides of Yaamon, making the infant Digimon feel strangely claustrophobic and penned in.

"Or were you expecting more than that?"

Yaamon bit his lip, then sucked in a breath and said, "Lilith was in it, and so was Wizardmon, and you said they got a lot of Myotismon's--what, history?--right...."

"When I said his history, I referred to how he organized his forces, who served him…and how he treated them, what his personality was like. All rather accurate, yes."

"Then…are my…were they like that—whatever they were—in this?..."

Still bent over the infant, Daemon regarded him silently. Then he stood up to his full height and replied, "Only your procreator knows for sure. Yet I have a pretty good guess that the humans' play is accurate in that regard too…has a grain of truth about their relationship...."

The Demon Lord left the infant and went back to the computer, moving a claw toward the keyboard. "The overblown name we--well, Barbamon mostly--gave it, 'Prognosticus,' is related to prophecy…but it seems to me that the play has more to do with the past, rather than the future--Barb disagrees to an extent, thinks there could be a bit of prophecy in it—regardless, it seems more useful for looking into a Digimon's heart, their past, how it affects them now…such insight can be useful…yes, perhaps even that could be used to predict the future...."

The screen moved again, and Yaamon watched.

&&&

It was time for Yaamon to meet his procreator for training, so he didn't have any time at all to ask Daemon more questions after the human play's chapter ended. He just rushed out with a very quick and mumbled 'thanks' out the door and down the tower.

Still fresh from the play, Yaamon thought about it too much when he started sparring, making a lot of stupid mistakes that his procreator scolded him over, and that left him with more cuts and bruises than he should've had.

Later that night, the infant had more time to puzzle over what he saw, no longer having to focus on defense and offense and evasion. He rolled over and over in his blankets--his procreator seemed the same to him in some ways, yet at the same time very different in the Prognosticus. She had been bossy, tough…but nicer somehow. He had seen Lilith as a baby too, as a child--Yaamon shivered at the sight and sound of Myotismon hurting her, he hated that, feeling sick and helpless as he watched, wishing he could've helped her. The infant thought he understood his procreator better, when she had spoken to him harshly about loneliness and when she pushed him to exhaustion so many times when they trained.

It was very different to somehow see Wizardmon, instead of hearing stories about him. Yaamon thought he rather liked his dead procreator: he was very loyal to Lilith, she acted nicer around him, and he seemed real smart and powerful…but not enough for Myotismon. The infant shuddered again. Was that what happened? He knew Lilith had killed her former Master and took over his forces—was that because Myotismon had killed Wizardmon? Seeing the long dead Digimon thrown into the water and especially Lilith crying out for him had horrified the infant—was that why Lilith hated tears so much? They hadn't done anything for Wizardmon....

Yaamon rolled over again, blinking wearily. He was sleepy, but his mind was racing, despite it being all muddled after learning so much today. The infant felt he had to decide now, whether he would ask his living procreator about all this. He was scared she would be furious--how could she not? Several times Yaamon felt he was intruding on something very private as he watched both his procreators together, especially in that--yeesh, was it a flashback within a flashback, when the play showed what they said was their first meeting? Wizardmon and Lilith around that campfire…they had both seemed so sad....

Still, regardless of their privacy, no matter how much the infant himself tried to shove it back, Yaamon had continued to instinctively feel a small thrill at any possible scrap of info on them. He couldn't pull his eyes away from the image of them, he wanted more…it's not like he would ever have a chance like this, everyone said Wizardmon was gone forever, and Lilithmon had been so different back then when he was around....

On the other hand, it felt just as wrong to hide the fact he had seen the play show something so intimate of Lilith and her friend, how could he let her think him ignorant of that? That could be even worse.... And surely, Lilith would clarify, and maybe he could make her feel better, happier, with this frail new understanding, if he really did understand…was any of that really true?...why had Daemon thought the parts about his procreators were?...he'd have to ask him next time....

Yaamon sighed, and rolled over flat on his face_. It's no use, I'll just make up my mind tomorrow_....

The next time he rolled over, it was just an instinctive movement as he slept, mumbling nonsense in a soft voice.

&&&

"What are you watching?" Lilithmon asked very coldly as she moved in behind Daemon.

Without even glancing at her, the Demon Lord of Wrath replied, "Just the chapter where you and that small sickly Tamer meet for the first time. Been watching it on repeat."

The other Demon Lord said nothing, just quietly leaning against the table and looking at her younger self on the screen with blank eyes. The Prognosticus had always disturbed her, with its eerie accuracy, its mere glimpses at the reality. It had also served as her guilty, desperate pleasure at times--it was the only place she could hear Wizardmon's voice from somewhere other than her own head.

She knew it disturbed Daemon too, as he was also unwillingly depicted. The rest--well, they had shown nothing but curiosity in the humans' play. Lilithmon had no idea what their lower forms were, so she did not know if they appeared in the Prognosticus at all and were just better at hiding their reactions--or if it truly was just her and Daemon who got their own freakish mirror images.

Lilith's jaw began to clench slightly at her infant self looking so forlorn and lost on the screen. For the Demon Lord of Lust, having ever been that small wasn't impossible, but rather a bitter fact of life. She remembered well being that weak, that helpless, so worthless…she just _had_ to get her hybrid to at least the Rookie level, to at least a full Child, he could not remain so vulnerable any longer, he had to take care of himself, he had to be strong, he had to fulfill his destiny, he had to—

Lilithmon felt something click in her mind, as she noticed how forlorn and lost and _alone_ her infant self had been....

When a flash of guilt and protest lit across her mind, Lilithmon took it as a sign--she simply _had_ to do it now, the opposite of her instinctive, betraying desire. It was for Yaamon's own good.

&&&

"Um, Dae, you didn't…y'know...."

"I didn't tell your procreator about our show. It'll just be our little secret for now, unless you decide to tell her in the future."

Yaamon had flashed the Demon Lord of Wrath a grateful, _trusting_ smile, and said a very sincere 'thanks.'

Before the infant could bombard him with more questions about the play, Daemon carefully deflected: "Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon have returned."

The infant's eyes lit up; he said another, quicker though no less sincere 'thanks,' then dashed off to find the pair.

Daemon stared after him a while, then flew up, considering how he _hadn't_ told Lilithmon about their screening--but he had planted the solution to Yaamon's evolution problem in her head all the same.

As for his Sister's sordid past and Wizardmon's place as her hybrid's procreator, Daemon figured she and Yaamon could deal with that themselves at a later time.

**Notes: Writing this chapter ended up giving me a headache. I imagined Digimon reaction to the Adventure 'show' in the Tamers-verse would be rather brain-breaking. 'Prognosticus' is taken from a Paper Mario videogame. Season 1/Adventure episode featured is number 34, "The Eigth Child Revealed"/"Bonds of Destiny! Tailmon"—I felt really weirded out when I realized that the episode where Impmon/Beezlemon kills Leomon is the 34th episode in its season too. What Daemon means by 'uncut footage,' he means they're watching the original Japanese episode, but like I added in the narrative, Digimon understand verbal Japanese, even if they can't instantly read or write it.**


	11. Chapter 10

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member--as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon.... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

**Notes: Just thanks for all the reviews so far, and I hope you enjoy the latest chapter.**

Ch. 10

"And Garurumon?"

Gazimon bowed low. "He's left already, and should be there by now, per your orders Lord Lilithmon."

The Demon Lord of Lust thanked the scout, and bid her farewell. She then went to speak with her hybrid.

&&&

"You can have the whole day off today."

When Yaamon's mouth dropped and his eyes bugged out, Lilithmon snarled, "Unless you prefer...."

"_No_ no! That's cool, that's really..." after some of the shock wore off, Yaamon's whole face brightened, and he continued, "…_great_!" Since she really was too tall to give some semblance of a proper thankful hug, the infant gratefully nuzzled the robes around her ankles. "You're the best!"

After stiffening for a surprised second, Lilithmon asked in a much clipped voice, "Leviamon told me you were fairly proficient at swimming. There's a stream I know, that Wi—your procreator and I used to visit sometimes…would you like to see it?"

The infant froze, staring at her. Then when he hopped higher toward her, Lilithmon took the hint and caught him with her good arm. "_Yesyesyes_--"

Lilith rolled her eyes again: "All right, all right, just be--"

"Thanks so so _so_ much!"

"—still," she finished, in slightly stilted voice. Yaamon thought Lilith was giving him a very funny look. Then she pressed a quick small kiss on his forehead, making her hybrid blush, pleased. She set him back down and had him follow her out of his quarters.

&&&

"With my crest, we'll be able to navigate the data streams to where we want to go," explained Lilithmon as she held the encased, dark green glass, dangling from its length of twine from her good hand. Yaamon was settled in the bent elbow of that same arm.

"Do all the crests do that?" The purple infant asked, already feeling that the smile on his face would last forever. Lilith didn't do it very often, but he loved it the few times she took him flying with her, he really hoped he could do it himself if--**when** he evolved. And now she was finally going to play with him! Or at least spend more non-training time with him, he had a feeling she wouldn't swim in the stream with him, and he wasn't sure if he should press his luck and ask if she would.

"Yes--yours should too, though it hasn't been properly tested yet--" Then her voice grew heavy with warning: "And it won't be for a while, you won't receive it until you're older."

"Like I want it anyway," snapped Yaamon, and then his mouth slammed shut and his eyes widened, quickly looking nervously up at Lilithmon. Except for a twitch of her eye, she made no comment. He had never confessed to her that he sorta kinda maybe didn't particularly _want_ to be a Demon Lord, and he wasn't planning to soon, but that may've been a real stupid hint.

Still, he muttered a very small 'sorry,' since she was being real nice today and that made him feel guilty about seeming ungrateful and temperamental and disrespectful.

Lilith continued as if he never spoke: "The crest will either find a data stream that'll take us to our destination, or summon one. Either way, it sometimes takes a while."

Yaamon had trouble with patience, but he could wait for something as rare and as special as this. At least he was full of questions to pass the time, and since it was just between him and Lilith with no strangers to watch, it would be ok this time.

"How does it know where we want to go?"

"When you hold it, you just think about what level you want to go to--it's all about your level of concentration."

"Uh huh."

"However, you couldn't ever use my crest--it's not just a rule, it's a fact: my crest won't react to you."

"Ok, so we can't switch our crests around at all."

"Correct--the crest of Lust will only work with me, as the crest of Gluttony should only work with you, and so on and so forth with the other Demon Lords."

Yaamon frowned, considering. "What about all the scouts you send out for mapping and stuff? You guys don't lead them out all the time, so how can they use the data streams to go wherever they want by themselves?"

"The Lords and I devised a way to duplicate that ability for our forces, taking other trinkets and marking them with the symbols of our crests and imbuing them with only that specific power."

"Oh, like what Gazimon sometimes wears on her wrist?"

"Exactly."

The purple infant grew more alert as Lilith's crest began to glow in earnest, and she quickly angled her wings toward an incoming data stream. The infant realized it looked scarier up close, red and pulsating, but still he felt excited.

Lilithmon shot into the stream and instinctively he recoiled further into her embrace, and she reciprocated, tightening her grip on him. Then just as soon as they entered it, they left the stream and came into the sky again, hovering over a line of trees with a clear blue path cutting through.

The older Demon Lord paid no attention to her hybrid's excited babble as she lowered them down on the bank by the water. Letting go, Yaamon eagerly jumped out of her arms, and as his procreator warned, "Stay where I can see you!" he splashed into the cool stream. He was surprised; it was very different from Leviamon's pool, not as freezing, and bright looking instead, just as clear as it had seemed from up in the sky.

As expected, Lilithmon nestled against a tree and kept one eye on him as she settled into a meditative stance. She was trying to teach him that too--but he wasn't very good at sitting still and clearing his head for the meditation. Still, his procreator hoped that when he evolved, when he was older, he would accomplish that as well.

Yaamon splashed around from side to side, straying back whenever Lilith called out, "I said not too far," and pretending all the while that he was long and lean like Leviamon, master of the sea (Levia had told him that he had been there before). Slowly a thought occurred to him, and he paused, letting himself float down the stream. When he was just the right distance from Lilith, he dipped his mouth into the water, held a good gulp in his mouth, and then spat it out in a long arc that sprayed her in the face.

She didn't react at all, but the infant giggled all the same. Finally, she raised her good arm and fired a small violet orb of energy that struck the water--causing a huge tidal wave to send a gaping Yaamon flying in the air and back across the other side of the stream. When the infant laughed, a faint smirk appeared on his procreator's face.

Both of her eyes opened and she turned to him when his laughter faded. Lilith found Yaamon looking quietly and curiously at glowing white creatures flitting about above him.

"Hi there," he called up to them, and the infant grew more curious when the creatures just trilled and giggled in a very high voice.

"They're Diginomes," explained Lilith, and then shook her head when Yaamon tried splashing the creatures. The Diginomes only giggled more and flew in tighter, faster, and higher circles above him.

"I thought all Digimon had names that ended in 'mon'?"

"They're not a different type of Digimon. They're a different species, like humans, but they're still digital beings like us."

"Ohhh…where do they come from?"

"I'm not sure, they're rather mysterious creatures. I've heard that they were here before us though."

Yaamon turned away from the Diginomes and began swimming back to his procreator. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I've also heard that we Digimon were not born in the Digital World, but rather migrated here."

The infant's large green eyes widened, and Lilithmon felt a painful twinge--granted, she had never see Wizardmon with a look like that in his eyes. Often no matter how much his eyes resembled her friend's, Yaamon's still often held emotions that had been foreign to Wizardmon's.

"You know…I experimented with the Diginomes before, when I was trying to get Wizardmon back, before I got you instead," murmured Lilith thoughtfully, unaware of the way Yaamon bit his lip and looked down after hearing her very last word. "There've been myths about their abilities to grant wishes, and I thought it was worth investigating...." Lilith shook her head, her former frustrations back then flashing across her pale face for a second, before turning impassive again. "I'm surprised that they seem calm in my presence."

Yaamon shook himself, blinking at that. "Why wouldn't they be?"

"Because none of the Diginomes I experimented with survived my research," replied Lilith matter-of-factly, very casually.

Yaamon immediately sank beneath the surface and swam under water for a while after that.

&&&

"And then what happened?"

"And then you dive into the volcano after Belph, and he's dangling from a rock inside but he never ever let go of Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon, and then you save all of them and the tribe chieftain rewards you with vases and statues, but only Belph liked that stuff and that's why it's all in his room, and that's how Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon ended up working with you guys, they were real grateful and wanted to pay you back."

"I thought Belph mentioned he made those…things." Leviamon been quick to defend his favorite brother, snidely remarking that Lilith simply didn't have an eye for art.

"Well, that's made up," replied Yaamon matter-of-factly.

Lilithmon shook her head, looking down at the infant curled beside her.

"You've quite an imagination, Pipsqueak." Yaamon just moved in closer to Lilith, not heeding that annoying nickname, and she readjusted her good arm around him. She had ordered him earlier to get out of the stream and start drying off 'cause they'd be leaving soon, and when he asked if she wanted to hear a story he made up about Belphemon's vases and sculptures, his procreator agreed. He then started a long, elaborate tale involving all the Demon Lords, and halfway through started an explanation as to how Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon became servants to them (they hadn't actually told him how or why yet). As went on, Lilith had offered an arm, and he had eagerly gone to it and welcomed it wrapping around him, uncaring if he was dry enough yet, if only because she didn't seem to mind either way.

She toyed with his ear, and that tickled, making the infant giggle--then she ruffled Yaamon's thin fur and picked him up, saying, "We should really be going now."

"Thanks again! I had a lot of fun today!" Yaamon exclaimed as Lilith took off, dangling her crest again.

Her eyes focused on the horizon ahead, looking for the desired data stream, Lilith explained, "There's one more place I want to show you, and then you can come home with me."

"What is it?"

"You'll see when we get there."

Night had started when Lilith's crest began to glow, and she dove into the incoming data stream, and immediately out the other side, over an--

"Island!"

At least he was pretty sure it was an island, only it was so big--could it be a continent? It looked like mostly green foliage surrounded by white sandy beaches from all the way up here, though he thought he spotted a lake too.

"It's the only land on this level. See--" and Lilith gestured around them, and Yaamon whistled at all the water surrounding the isle. So much--it made Leviamon's pool resemble a puddle--was this the sea, the ocean he spoke of? He said that was the largest body of water ever, and so did Barbamon's dictionary.

"--nothing else but water in every direction."

Lilith landed, and Yaamon hopped down, then startled--his body had sunk slightly, and when he moved away, he found he had left a round impression in the sand, and that white grains were sticking to him. He saw that his procreator also left imprints in the sand, in the shape of her feet, and with drag lines where her robes passed through.

"Sand's neat," murmured Yaamon, as he watched waves of water go back and forth across the grains. He moved closer, giggling as he let the waves tug and push him forwards and backwards.

"Thought you had enough of playing in the water today?"

"It's never too much!"

Lilith shook her head, though her eyes were focused on all the trees behind the beach: "You have to be more careful, these waters are filled with marine Digimon that don't take kindly to strangers like you."

Noting the tone of her voice and well aware of how nice she'd been today, Yaamon obeyed his procreator, though remarked, "It doesn't feel that windy though. I dunno how the water's moving around like that."

"It's not necessarily only wind that moves the water. These are the tides, pushed and pulled by gravity."

"Gravity?"

"You and Barbamon haven't covered that in the dictionary yet?"

"Oh--wait, yeah--it, um, says why stuff falls down after going up."

"Such as you and your constant jumping."

"Well, it's not like I got legs or anything--all I can do is hop around."

"Not for long...." Lilith murmured; her eyes were far away as she continued to probe the foliage by sight alone.

Her words made her infant fidget and look down uncomfortably. "I dunno if I'll evolve any time soon," Yaamon finally confessed.

Lilithmon blinked, and then looked down at the purple infant. "That lack of confidence is no help at all."

Kneeling down, she placed her good hand gently on Yaamon's cheek. "You have to understand that you _can_ do it--"

Yaamon shook himself, frowning, "No, I can't, I'm t-too weak--"

"You **can**. You must." She ruffled his short fur lightly, noting his dejected look. "Yes, you are weak, but that doesn't have to be a permanent state--I was no more powerful than you at your age." The Demon Lord of Lust sighed, and then continued, "You'll grow strong, you _must_, you cannot remain weak--"

"But is it so _bad_…being weak?"

The infant Digimon tried not to audibly gulp at the harsh look in his procreator's eyes, or at the way she jerked up to her full height and towered over him. "It is the worst."

Still looking him in the eye, Lilith ordered, "Listen closely, I do not wish to repeat myself. I am leaving you on this island for three months--I expect you to have evolved to the next level by the time I return for you."

Except for the sound of the tides crashing softly on the shore, there was a deep and distant silence between the surviving procreator and her only infant.

Yaamon knew his procreator never joked, especially when giving commands. His eyes growing wider and wider by the second, he immediately asked, "You're leaving me all alone--?"

"No--there are plenty of other Digimon on the island, but they're _very_ territorial, and more likely to try deleting you for your data rather than sit down for idle chit chat, so be on your guard. And as I mentioned earlier, there are also Digimon in the waters to be wary of...."

The infant shot a terrified look at the trees that suddenly seemed too tall. He shouted when Lilith began walking away, and quickly hopped after her. "No no, you can't--"

"_I_ give orders to you, Yaamon, and you _obey_. Never forget that," snapped Lilithmon in a clipped voice.

Her pace quickened, and the infant hurried and struggled to keep up. "_Please_, I don't--don't leave me--" With a sudden rush of speed, Yaamon bolted ahead of Lilith and buried himself against her ankles. "I'll evolve at home I swear I'll evolve soon, I'll be good, I'll be strong I won't be weak, I'll be good, please please_ please_ don't leave me behind, I won't be weak again, I swear I'll be strong--"

"This isn't a punishment," said Lilith in a strangely soft voice.

"_Freakin'_ _sounds like one to me_!" Shouted Yaamon, and the anger in his voice heartened Lilith, even if it was disrespectful, not to mention the foul language--it only showed more spine and fire in her infant, perhaps he was not as soft as first perceived. She felt less gratified with how shiny his damn green eyes were becoming.

"It's for your own good."

"Y-you wouldn't even _think_ about this if I could evolve already!" Accused the infant, instinctively letting his fangs show--that too heartened Lilithmon…but less so when the lips around them were starting to quiver slightly, and his eyes were still shining, pooling with moisture.

"I was on my own for a long time, at your age. Evolved in solitude--"

"_I don't want to be like you_!" Yaamon bit his lip, and though he still glared, one tear managed to slip past, no matter how hard he tried to stop it.

Lilithmon regarded him quietly. Then faintly smirking, she said, "And yet you wish to go home with me?" Yaamon jerked, and his glare dissipated as he tried to say something, but his procreator cut him off, continuing, "And do you not share half of my data?"

"I--"

"You do not wish to be the Demon Lord of Gluttony?"

Starting to breathe harshly, nervously--yet Yaamon managed to whisper, "No."

The older Demon Lord regarded him with very cold eyes. "Then why should I even bother coming back for you?" The sheer immediate terror that lit up the infant's eyes made something twist and crack in Lilithmon, that made her snap, "But that would be _such_ a waste." She flared out her wings with an impatient snap. "You _will_ be a Demon Lord, it's your _destiny_, it's in your very_ data_,so I _strongly_ suggest you get used to it."

Lilithmon quickly made her ascent--and kept going even as she looked down in surprise. Yaamon had leapt and had a decent portion of her violet robes in his mouth. His whole small body was remarkably stiff as he clung on for dear life, his eyes squeezed shut.

A faint, proud smirk tugged at the older Demon Lord's mouth.

She leveled off her flight path, hovering in place and making sure she wasn't too high above the beach. With her being relatively still, Yaamon dangled and swung about in place from his iron grip on the fabric, which continued to tear ominously--Lilith laid a careful, coaxing hand on his back, holding him.

The infant Digimon obeyed his procreator's silent order, letting go and settling into her grip, and she brought him up close to her and he buried his face in her sleeve, she wouldn't leave him all alone--

Lilithmon pressed a small, tender, but unusually long kiss on top, in between his ears.

Then she flung him quickly and forcefully away from her, and before Yaamon could bounce back up and off the sand, she was too high up for him to jump after her and catch her robes again.

Yaamon still hopped to the end of the beach, even as his procreator was flying farther and farther away with her back to him, not even shooting one last look behind her--

"_Lilith_!" The infant splashed into the tides, spluttering and still screaming out her name even as the water pushed him back, even when he was trying to move ahead of them this time, no longer playing at all. "_Lilith! Lilith!_" He managed to get lucky, riding one wave as it pushed or pulled or whatever toward the sea, closer to her--no no, she was an almost matching dot in the dark sky now.

"_Lilith Lilith Lilith--__**Mom, please**_!"

Yaamon had never called her that before, never used what Barbamon called a uniquely human term, when the Demon Lord of Greed had excitedly talked about it as he was comparing the infant's own origin to how humans normally spread their numbers, noting the different names for seemingly equivalent things--but Lilith had never liked being called that, she said she'd gone through enough names and didn't care for another, so he hadn't paid much attention to it until--

The infant Digimon's last desperate scream soon broke down into conscious efforts to keep himself from full out crying like a useless thing, when he finally realized that his procreator was no longer in sight.

Floating alone in the water, not too far from the island yet, but the waves were steadily pulling him away--Yaamon dimly noted how the tides were taking longer this time to push him back--that was about all he noticed, the infant was thoroughly consumed by--

Either he didn't have any energy left or the shock was too great: regardless, Yaamon didn't scream when he was suddenly pulled down beneath the waves, though he could feel something slick and cold holding on. Pulling him down.

**Notes: Cliffhanger! Though not really, since it's not like I'm gonna kill of our main character for real at this point. Though maybe how Yaamon gets out of this will be a surprise. Lilithmon's extreme survival training (with a little help from Daemon that she's either unaware of or only pretending ignorance at this point, your choice for now) is inspired by "Fullmetal Alchemist" and "Dragonball Z" characters that performed similar actions with their own students. Yaamon's question about there being something wrong with weakness was inspired by a line in the manga/anime "Rurouni Kenshin." As always, comments and questions are welcomed and hoped for.**


	12. Chapter 11

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member--as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon.... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

**Notes: Just thanks for all the reviews so far, and I hope you enjoy the latest chapter.**

Ch. 11

Yaamon soon grew thankful he hadn't screamed--he didn't have enough presence of mind to concentrate on believing he didn't need to breathe underwater like Levia told him, but he had enough sense to remember him saying that he should still keep his mouth closed when he couldn't focus hard enough, and so he did, even as his eyes locked with large green ones that were darker and colder than his, staring out of a blue-and-white face. A second later he comprehended the whole body--still blue and white with lines of red with webbed feet that clashed, but its webbed ears matched. There was something weirdly mechanical on its back, and its hands, its _freakin' large hands_ were all over him, no matter how hard he struggled--

The infant Digimon knew he just **had** to open up his mouth for an attack.

_I can breath underwater I can breathe underwater I can breathe_--Yaamon spat out a rolling black orb, and then jerked back, hard. His eyes widened when the aquatic Digimon barely flinched, and its hold remained just as strong.

His assailant's grip tightened, and Yaamon's eyes grew larger as he saw another Digimon like it, though this one was aiming a sharp spear straight for him--

A dark and much larger shape suddenly swooped down on the spear-wielding Digimon, and its matching partner jerked in surprise--the infant took his chance and jerked out of its loosened grip.

Yaamon swam up and away backwards, his eyes frozen on the sight he was trying to leave: his assailant in hot pursuit of him and summoning its own spear, while that monstrously huge dark shape tore into that other aquatic Digimon, scattering its data and absorbing it--

The purple infant gave a pained shout as he felt something slice through his back, and he turned enough to finally notice another marine Digimon like the others, drawing back its own spear, with a red fog starting to drift around it. Yaamon's eyes snapped ahead when he remembered the other still chasing him, the one that first took him--it had caught up, and was right in his face--

This time the infant bit down hard on his incoming assailant's ear. The larger Digimon flailed around, partly from pain, but mostly from how unexpected that was. Its third partner kept a cooler head--it aimed its stained spear to stab through the rest of the infant Digimon.

Yaamon noticed at the last possible second, but it was enough--he immediately let go and started swimming away, only getting soundly rammed by the staff part of the spear rather than freakin' impalement. And the misaimed strike had been strong, thankfully flinging him far away from those two--but unfortunately lower, no closer to the surface.

When he shook himself from the hit and was finally getting some speed in his ascent, the other two were hot on his trail again, and he_ knew _they'd catch up in a second, they were made for swimming, not him, not him at all--

Yaamon sneaked a terrified glance behind him when he heard the shriek--the largest shadow had deleted another of the aquatic Digimon. But the last of them was still chasing the infant, now with a more determined and furious look in its eyes....

The marine Digimon threw its spear.

_He's fa_--

The infant shouted again when the spear struck him--not impaling, he had dodged enough to avoid that, but not to avoid having it slice through his side. Yaamon tried to keep swimming, but he was slowing down, his side and back screaming, and now he was shivering from the pain and the cold--

The marine Digimon grabbed his ear, raised its spear above the infant and--

_**The pain exploded and the rest of him ripped and tore and Yaamon was in too much shock to scream and light and dark flashed before him interchangeably and he felt his entire body stretch and break and his very data twist and--**_

Impmon grabbed the other's spear in both hands before it could bury itself in his skull. The recently evolved Rookie and Child still had a terrified look on his now white face, which continued to pale--in the same instant he had stopped the attack, he struggled to keep the spear back. Even if the aquatic Digimon didn't look so much larger now, it was still stronger, and still trying to impale him; Impmon's arms were straining to hold the weapon back, beginning to strain so much that they started to tremble, but the spear head kept getting closer and closer to the spot in between his still green, still frightened eyes. He was only able to hold the bastard off this long because he was so freakin' surprised by the fight he was putting up, that he had freakin' _evolved_....

And then it came to the child, that more instinctive awareness of his own ability, coupled now with his sheer fear--

Impmon concentrated on the water, and slowly at first, it grew solid around the spearhead. Then it solidified faster and faster, the ice rapidly climbing up the spear, already across the aquatic Digimon's hands before it could even think to let go. Its large eyes bugged out as the ice soon encased its entire body. Impmon quickly let go of the now frozen spear head. He wasn't sure how long the ice would hold, the marine Digimon would probably break it any second now--it was way tougher, all Impmon really had going for him was the element of surprise. He madly swam for the surface, leaving the frozen Digimon behind to drift down, before it floated back up, or whichever way it went, Impmon didn't care, all that mattered was that he get out of the water and as far away from the creature as soon as possible, and especially before that other shadowy Digimon that was like the largest thing ever could give chase after butchering those other aquatic Digimon--

The child only made his arms and legs pump faster when he heard a sickening crack behind him, and the exploding sound of undoubtedly ice and the body it encased shattering into so many pieces--Impmon didn't look back this time, he knew that it just had to be that other horrifyingly large monster, which was only growing stronger with all the data it was absorbing--

Finally Impmon broke the surface with a hungry, grateful gulp of fresh air. He didn't pause though, continuing to rush toward the beach. And even when he hit the beach, the child sprinted across the sand and straight into the towering trees that had freaked him out before, but now they screamed nothing but shelter and cover for him, someplace to hide, where no one could find him.

When the young Digimon felt he was far enough inside the jungle, he jumped onto one of the trees and rapidly climbed up it, passing many branches before he got to one that was pretty high. Finally Impmon stopped, kneeling on the branch and clinging to the large trunk of the tree, all while he gasped for air with his eyes squeezed shut.

Seconds passed. Then minutes. The night was relatively quiet to his now larger ears. Impmon slowly let go of the trunk, then shuffled around, sitting against it instead, his feet laid out straight in front of him--_holy fuck, my __**feet**_.

Though he continued to sit, he slowly looked over himself in amazement--arms and legs, three clawed toes, three fingers covered in red gloves, and there was a bandana around his neck that matched their color. The child Digimon fidgeted, unpinning his tail behind him, it wasn't very comfortable in between him and the tree--_yeesh, I have a tail now too_. On his stomach was a tattoo of a fanged yellow face, and his fur seemed thicker, and a much darker purple, and if he crossed his eyes he saw he had a black button nose too, popping out of a white snout_. Wonder if my eyes are still green? Guess I have to look at a nicer body of water for a mirror, way nicer than the freakin' sea or ocean or whatever the hell it's called--what did Barb call 'em, cinnnamins if they're two different words for the same stupid thing?_

The child huffed at the thought of the Demon Lord of Greed; it just made him think even more of the others, as if trying to remember some of Levia's advice back in that watery hole hadn't done that already…Belph was probably still asleep…maybe Luce was torturing some other poor bastard in the dungeons...was Dae still watching that eerie funhouse mirror play the humans had made of their world? Had he lied and told Lilith what they had seen, and that's why she--no, Dae wouldn't do that to him, and Lilith would've told him if he was in that kinda trouble, she would've informed him of the exact crime he did to earn so harsh a punishment.... 

Impmon looked up, his heart now slowing down, no longer beating hard and fast and terrified. He tried to see the sky through all the leaves that actually ended up making a pretty complete makeshift roof with few gaps in between.

_Lilith, can I go home now?_

The child's fangs clenched--he knew the answer well. His procreator had said she expected him to have evolved_ by_ the time she returned, she never said she would come back when he finally freakin' did it, he was still stuck here for three months, she had totally ditched him--

The breath that had finally returned to him suddenly left when he felt his tree shake. Impmon looked down, and found something with white and blue stripes pushing against the bark. He wasn't surprised when he dimly saw that it was dripping wet, soaking the surrounding bushes slightly.

The sound of the worst crack ever almost made Impmon go deaf--his tree was starting to topple down. The child Digimon cursed, jumping off his broken sanctuary into another tree that was relatively close.

_At least this jungle--forest--whatever's pretty tightly packed--_

Impmon jumped into another tree when the blue-and-white striped Digimon followed on the ground to the last one he was just in. The way larger beast went to the next, and so Impmon leapt into another tree, and so it went--the child hopping madly through trees, while his pursuer followed closely on foot.

_At least he's not knocking over any more trees_.

Impmon sneaked another glance down, and felt his stomach sink further as the monster continued the chase.

_What the hell, you'd think those psycho swimmers would be enough for him--_

The child shouted when he jumped from the last tree--and straight into the air. He hadn't noticed the cliff face ahead of him.

_Okay, it's not so far down, and it…I'm directly above a river. Great, just what I need--more water. Why couldn't I keep my big fat mouth--er, mind--shut? I didn't need a damn mirror that fast--_

Impmon wasn't sure if he intentionally twisted away mid air from the sight, or if his body was just panicking like the rest of him and just flailing about, or if gravity was being insane--either way, when he twisted back, he saw a striped blue-and-white cross between a wolf and a human falling toward him.

_You've __**gotta**__ be freakin' kidding me--_

When Impmon splashed into the river, he immediately tried to swim toward the shore--but the current was stronger than his adrenaline rush and pulled him along. Fine, whatever, just as long as it kept him ahead of that crazy wolf humanoid Digimon thing--his pursuer crashed into the water, and began paddling with the current in earnest. Impmon followed in kind, pumping his own arms and legs, begging the current to take him away faster.

There was a line of stepping stones ahead, crossing the river. Impmon didn't care if they were natural or not, he swam harder for them, clambering onto the first rock he knocked into, then leaping across the rest and onto the shore. He dashed into the trees, his heart pounding in his ears as he heard the bipedal wolf splash out of the river and its footsteps beat the ground as it followed him.

The child stumbled, backpedaling as the wolf Digimon leapt effortlessly in front of him, towering--for a moment, he still felt like an infant, that nothing had changed. In full view, Impmon noticed more details about the monster, like some clothes, especially the spikes on one of its pant legs and brassier spikes on his huge knuckles--_that _curled itself into a fist and shot toward him.

Impmon rolled to the left, something snapping in him: when he bounced back up, his glove felt increasingly warm.

"_Leave me alone_!" He shouted, forming and flinging a fireball straight for the creature. The child soon realized it might've been wiser to run, when the wolf Digimon knocked his fiery projectile to the side with his other arm, his fur only lightly smoking.

Later the child would scold himself for not acting then, either fight or flight. Instead Impmon had froze for a second, but that was enough for the older Digimon to take a few steps forward and swiftly angle its large foot so that it precisely kicked him in the stomach, despite the difference in size and height--to the child, it seemed like his enemy could've crushed his whole body under that one foot.

Yet for all intents and purposes, it felt like the monster had still done so: clutching his stomach and giving out one cough that spat out saliva and bits of blood, and dimly feeling the humiliation of having a pained tear spring to one eye, Impmon crumpled with a thud on the ground. He could hear his procreator's loud voice, Lilithmon ordering him to 'get up, get up,' and he _tried_, but he couldn't get his stupid new legs to work. They somehow felt what was now surely a gaping hole in his stomach very keenly, and his arms seemed to feel that searing pain too, and they were too busy clutching at it, as if it would make it all go away. He didn't cough anymore, but rather was consumed with gasping for air (he would **not** whimper).

_One hit, one __**freakin'**__ hit--_

The child's gasping was suddenly cut off as one of the wolf Digimon's claws suddenly wrapped around his throat and hauled him up, slamming his small body against a tree.

"You're not a native here," said the wolf Digimon in a deep voice, as Impmon's hands now scrambled at his hold. "And this is _my_ island."

Impmon tried to warm his gloves up again, hot enough to burn the monster's wrists and get him to let go. His tail flailing wildly around, his legs kicked out, trying to strike back, but the beast kept the rest of himself safely away, nothing but his outstretched arms clutching his neck--

"Leave."

The child squeezed his eyes shut when he felt a flicker of a burn go through the other's fur, but the stranglehold never slackened and he already knew that his fire was far too weak to be effective. He tried to put more juice into it, but his head was starting to feel real dizzy.

"I…_**can't**_," Impmon managed to choke out, glaring straight into the monster's amber ones, his green eyes full of frustration and fury, with fear still lurking in the background. "I…I'd really just _love_ to go…but since I can't…can't fly or swim...I'm stuck here until my ride gets here...."

The grip around his neck only curled tighter. Impmon's mouth snapped shut and his eyes squeezed closed as his hands stiffened then trembled then fell away limply. His feet had stopped kicking, his tail done waving, all of them only weakly twitching.

"Data streams, you idiot child," snarled the wolf Digimon.

If he could've, Impmon would've shook his head. With his eyes still shut, the child answered in an even smaller voice, "No…no good, I've got some place real sp…specific to be, don't w…wanna get lost--"

His eyes bugged out when the wolf Digimon's fist squeezed harder, then closed again as everything, from his tail's tip to his head began to tremble in earnest. He tried to get his arms to move, but they wouldn't answer, and his feet just as useless, and his tail had finally thumped against the tree bark and stayed there--

_Damn it…damn it...._

Finally Impmon lost all sense of himself and his head slumped forward, his chin resting on the wolf Digimon's fist.

&&&

When the child Digimon opened his eyes, and squinted at the sunlight shining down at him in between something darker, he wondered how the holes in his ceiling got there. Then he reconsidered--wasn't there another level on top of his room? No way sunlight could shine through, even if with the holes in his ceiling--

Then Impmon felt a finger twitch.

"Damn it," growled the child as he struggled to get up, all the events from yesterday crashing down on him. _Stupid Lilithmon stupid Lilithmon __**crazy**__ Lilithmon...._

It was very slow, his stomach still felt like shit. Impmon managed to get into a sitting position, though he leaned back. Supporting his whole meager weight on one tired arm, he lifted the other one to massage his throbbing neck through the coarse fabric of the red bandana.

_With my luck, the big doofus probably left me mute--_

The small cough that tore out of his throat was actually reassuring.

His hand falling away from his neck, Impmon moved forward enough so that he could wrap both his arms around his knees, resting his head on them. The child didn't get it--how was he still alive? He had lost consciousness, when the wolf Digimon had him at its mercy--why didn't it finish him?

Impmon sprang up and flinched when he heard a far off roar.

_Ok, maybe a bigger freak distracted him before he could snuff me out for good._

The child didn't even consider the possibility that a larger Digimon finished his assailant off--it wasn't a very cheerful thought, the idea that there was something more lethal than this wolf humanoid monster.

Slowly Impmon stood up, and just as slowly, he started to walk in the river's direction, hoping there weren't more nasty strangers waiting in its depths for him. His throat just needed some water, something cool and soothing to run down it....

The child Digimon knelt on the bank. After staring hard and nervously at the rushing stream (and confirming that his eyes were still green), he put both his palms together and pooled some water in them. He bent down, still trying to keep his eyes on the water, and slowly brought his gloves up, not wanting to spill a drop. Impmon gulped at the water; it did make his mouth better, but somehow sting it at the same time--was it so swollen that making anything go down it was too much? Is that what happened after being strangled?

After dipping his cupped hands several more times and drinking from them, Impmon wiped his mouth with the back of his arm, and looked up at the sky. He could see the Human World, large, pulsating, the same as ever; Barbamon said the Human World could be seen from every level, so Impmon guessed the Demon Lord of Greed saw it too, as did Belph, Levia, Luce, Dae, Pumpkinmon, Gotsumon, all the other servants, Lilith....

Impmon frowned and angrily stomped over to the nearest tree. Lighting a very small flame on the tip of his finger, the child drew one slash down it, leaving a dark burnt mark.

_Day one on Craphole Island_.

Then with fists at his side, Impmon walked deeper into the trees, looking for a real good shelter to wait things out until his procreator returned.

**Notes: Divermon attacked Yaamon/Impmon in the beginning--didn't get around to naming him, 'cause I don't think someone as young as Yaamon/Impmon would automatically know every Digimon's name. I'm taking the Digimon Wiki's statement that Impmon has an icy attack in some games and expanding on it--in this fic, he'll develop control over both fire and water, which he can freeze. Either in my 'verse he forgot how to manipulate water too in "Tamers" (since he doesn't get the powerful instinct and incentive to use it when he's trapped in a water environment like in this fic, but he never really gets into a situation like that in the show) or we he just never uses it on-screen **_**because**_** he was never in a situation where he needed it desperately. And it's Weregarurmon who attacks him in the end, though I didn't get to name him in story in front of Impmon's face yet either. And 'Craphole Island' was totally reused from the live-action drama "LOST" on ABC, now in its final season, and which I'd like to crossover with Digimon Tamers and Impmon sometime ("LOST" about a plane crashing on a steadily mysterious and supernatural Island with at least one monster? 'Digimon' much? XP)**


	13. Chapter 12

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member-as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

**Notes: Sorry for the long wait for an update, I should've made a warning for a hiatus. Anyway, hope you liked the latest chapter, and though updates will come slow, I'll try not to get into another large hiatus without warning anytime soon. Also, thanks so much for the Lost/Digimon Tamers plotbunny support. I'll have to let you know if anything comes of that.**

Ch. 12

Impmon realized he had been a spoiled child the whole time.

At first, he thought the island was filled with psychotic Digimon. Lilith had not exaggerated, _everyone _attacked him. And when they didn't attack him, they were attacking each other, and Impmon would just get the hell out of there just the same. Maybe some of it was just because of growing paranoid delusions all alone in a jungle that seemed too dark and creepy at all times, but it really felt like everyone was nuts…and then the thought occurred to him that maybe this was normal. The young Digimon was aware he still didn't know much, but at least he knew not everyone lived in a fortress concerned with defense against outsiders and keeping relative peace within its walls…and it was just beginning to register with him how different that would make their lives. Everyone killin' each other for their data, to evolve, grow stronger. To survive.

Impmon still hadn't absorbed another's data. He hadn't worked up the nerve to do what most others on the Island did, hunt down a Digimon and make the first move. And he hadn't managed to kill in self-defense either, it seemed like he barely made it out alive from each encounter. He could, maybe, wait hidden while other Digimon fought it out, instead of running the hell away from the action-wait until one fell, then quickly absorbing his data before the victor could reap the reward.

The child Digimon hadn't worked up the nerve to try that either yet.

###

"Stupid obsessed Weregarurumon," muttered Impmon into the dirt, for one blissful second lying pretty still and peaceful, before picking himself back up again and moving into another fighting stance against said wolf Digimon. Even though arms and legs and a tail were new to him, Impmon had gotten pretty used to them almost immediately. Lilith had said Digimon possessed particularly special and swift instincts for adapting to new physical features as they were meant to evolve abruptly even if the time leading up to that could take a while-but still, they were _new_, and if not for the fact that he had seen Lilith and now this freakin' Weregarurmon fight, he wouldn't really know how to do an even marginally effective battle stance_. Lucky me_.

Impmon had eventually gotten the psycho wolf's name when the guy kept chasing him around, undoubtedly annoyed at letting him live, and wanting to finish the job. Except he hadn't. And Impmon knew with a now numb certainty that he could kill him very easily. So it was very weird when the Ultimate level Digimon kept passing up the chance, and even let him dodge and get in a couple of hits. The only explanation the child could come up with was that Weregarurumon was just toying with him now.

The larger Digimon snapped out a fast kick, sending him flying into a tree, making its bark crack a little as he bounced off it gagging. The child gained as much control over himself as fast as he possibly could, readying to-_there_: Weregarurmon shot out a fist, and Impmon jumped above it, and landed roughly on top before madly running up the long arm. When he got high enough, the child Digimon jumped and did his best imitation of one of the kicks he'd seen (and felt) the wolf Digimon dish out. He felt some small satisfaction when it was a direct hit, but it only made Weregarurmon shut his eyes as if irritated and he barely flinched. But Impmon was shocked when the claws on his foot actually raked bloody lines through the fur of his enemy's cheek.

With the momentum of his kick, Impmon landed back on the ground none too gracefully, stumbling before completely falling flat on his tail. Impmon flushed with embarrassment, then immediately scrambled to his feet, assuming another fighting stance. At least Weregarurumon took his time wiping at his red scratch and marveling at it (apparently he was just as surprised at something so small leaving behind such a visible mark). The child Digimon stayed still with a tension in his body he had yet to master, waiting for his opponent's next move; he'd react accordingly. It wasn't a good idea to strike again so soon (Weregarurmon had the annoying habit of looking distracted only to react with, for example, a blinding fist to the gut) and running away wasn't very effective ever. His earlier, totally panicked attempts at that before always resulted in Weregarurmon blocking his path with blinding speed and sending him flying back with some part of his body or all of it feeling like it was run over by a Trailmon. That, and he was just growing sick and tired of running away from a fight with this bastard. It soon felt like such an escape (if ever successful) was more likely to make him throw up in disgust, instead of from cracked ribs making his insides ache and act funny.

Finally the wolf Digimon struck out, and even though Impmon had tried to prepare himself, he found in a split second dread that he couldn't dodge the punch-immediately, he desperately tried to block the strike instead, crossing and locking his arms in front. Weregarurmon was definitely holding back, toying with him-if he'd been really trying, that punch would have sent him flying again, block or no. Instead it only made him feel like his arms were shattered and left him swaying, but remain standing.

"Pathetic defense," sneered the larger Digimon, before delivering a kick that _did_ send him slamming back down to the ground. The way he landed on his head made it ache and his sight go dizzy and swim with _**damn it**_ pained tears and he fought to get back up, he really did-

After managing to get his pounding head up for a second, Impmon plopped back down and fell unconscious.

Later he woke up, alone, and thankful to find that his arms weren't broken after all, just hurting like hell, along with a bunch of other stuff.

This was another reason behind the increasingly plausible idea that stupid obsessed Weregarurumon was toying with him-the wolf Digimon made it a pattern, kept leaving him alive even when he faded to unconsciousness and was completely at the other's mercy, completely helpless to stop his own deletion. Instead, this would happen, the same thing over and over again, until Weregarurmon showed up to repeat _everything_, the whole stupid circle of humiliation.

He knew about and had seen Digimon stalk each other, but this was getting freakin' ridiculous.

###

Lilithmon, the rest of her fellow Demon Lords, and their servants and soldiers soon found their fortress too quiet. Though they mused about this with varying levels of honesty: some were open about it, others...not so much.

###

Of course, when Lilith had first aban-_left_ her hybrid with every intention of returning later, she had to inform her forces of his absence, especially since most of them had grown used to Yaamon's presence. She did not gather everyone, just a group of messengers, who would pass the news around.

Pumpkinmon had glanced at his fellow messengers, then sighed and said, "Everyone's thinking it, I'm just asking-you truly left our young Lord all alone-?"

(Quietly, Gotsumon was relieved at his friend's shift into formality, and Gazimon felt nothing but impressed marvel at the way the plant Digimon mixed bluntness with attempts at tact.)

The Demon Lord of Lust shook her head, "Of course not-Captain Garurumon is looking after him."

Now it was Gotsumon's turn: "Um…doesn't that defeat the purpose? I mean, what you said you wanted to do, your Lordship?..."

Lilithmon arched a brow. "You would rather I left him with no protection at all?"

The rock Digimon's eyes widening, he scrambled, "No, never, of course not, I'd never want Yaa-that is, Lord Gluttony to be hurt or-"

The taller humanoid Digimon shook her head. "I have ordered the Captain to only intervene when he must, where the young Lord would die otherwise. Barring that, he must let the child fight his own battles, and under no circumstances must he learn that anyone is looking out for him."

"Wait, how could he do that if he's met-_have_ the young Lord and Captain Garurumon met-?"

"No," and Lilithmon glanced to Gotsumon as she answered his question, "they have not. Captain Garurumon has seen Lord Gluttony from a distance, but the two have never formally met-the Captain has been too focused on the investigations in the lower levels to do anything else, until now."

"If the Captain's not heading the investigation for three months, then does that mean," and Pumpkinmon shot an annoyed look at Gazimon, who was starting to smirk a little.

"Yes, his Second will take over." Calmly observing their minor quarrel, Lilithmon added, "Though for an extra level of secrecy, I've ordered the Captain to evolve to his ultimate level."

"But I thought he was supposed to be covert-y'know, the unseen bodyguard? What's it matter if he evolved or not?" Pumpkinmon wondered aloud.

"I've ordered the Captain to also pick up where I left off in training the child, in which case him being seen will be unavoidable."

"So…the Captain's gonna pretend to just be an island native out for the kid's-er, the young Lord's data?" Gotsumon tried not to look so nervous questioning one of his masters.

"That is correct."

"That's a tough act to balance," murmured Pumpkinmon. Gotsumon looked up to the ceiling in despair; the few bird Digimon chosen as messengers for their flight skills silently stared at him; Bokomon shoved a hand over whatever reply Neemon had, and Gazimon immediately bared her fangs at him.

"My Captain is more than up to the task," snarled Gazimon, her eyes narrowed at Pumpkinmon.

"Why else would I choose him?" Lilithmon said aloud, and immediately her messengers snapped to attention, silent. "Inform everyone now-except my fellow Lords, they already know."

They all bowed before her, then were off, already knowing who covered which area. These particular Digimon had done messenger duty before.

###

"Really, Sister, he'll be so far behind when he returns-"

Lilithmon rolled her eyes at Barbamon. "He'll just work harder once he's back." Turning her back on the Demon Lord of Greed, she reminded him, "I want my hybrid to at least reach Rookie level, he can learn to read later-"

"Since when have you underestimated such knowledge?" That made Lilith pause, and she turned back, and found Barbamon not even looking at her. He had already busied himself with reading a screen.

"Don't you want him to be independent in every possible way? Take this correspondence from the Human World for instance," and he gestured to the screen.

"Who is it? Not our agents from U.S. Defense _again_-"

"I was under the impression we were following all leads in regards to the odd sentient substance in the lower levels-if they have information, we should always be willing to list-"

"Too many times it seems like they're crying wolf, or whatever their phrase is."

"You _are_ in a foul mood." When Lilith shot him a glare, Barbamon shook his head, adding, "And no, it isn't them. It's our agent at Shibumi's hospital, with another update on him."

"Is he up and walking again?"

"No."

"Then tell her to not report anything unless something major happens-"

"I think not." Lilithmon just rolled her eyes. "Now Sister, you don't even look over the reports on Shibumi, so it shouldn't try your patience-"

"Why even bother with them? Shibumi can tell us himself how his physical body is doing-"

"And I thought you said he didn't make sense." The Demon Lord of Lust growled at Barb's teasing. "Look, it still pays to have multiple perspectives on anything, this human's status included-"

Lilith gave an irritable sigh. "As long as our agents guard him from any harm and you field all their status reports, I'll be-how did you put it?-less 'impatient' about our personal God."

Barbamon actually chuckled at that. Then he clicked a button, minimizing the message, and continued, "Back to what I was saying-do you want Yaamon to have everything read to him? To have him gain knowledge constantly filtered through someone else?"

"It certainly makes him more malleable," replied Lilith humorlessly.

Yet the Demon Lord of Greed laughed, "You do have a point about that."

###

Impmon had found some caves on the Island, near a running stream. If he was just careful about picking an unoccupied one, it was good shelter.

He didn't feel much like exploring today, and he wasn't even really physically up for it-he had to nurse his wounds at least for a little while. The bare minimum anyway, Impmon was still impatient and found he disliked waiting around more and more as time went by-but sometimes really unexpected shit happened to him, whether his body was ready for self-defense or not. In that case, he really should spend as much time healing whenever he had the chance, and not be so quick to get up and roam around at the smallest hint he could walk fast enough.

Instead, he scrawled words Barb had taught him, though he had never written them before, as he had been handless then. Now he traced them into the dirt with a stick, doing his best to remember them all, at least how they were spelled. "Island" was an easy word now. He made sure to practice his alphabet, and even tried some of the arithmetic Barb taught him a few days before Lilith ditched him_._ Just the real simple stuff with addition and subtraction and even some multiplication.

When his attention wandered or he just got frustrated at reviewing all this crap, Impmon would start using his stick to make stuff that looked like everyone back home. Pictures of his procreator, of Belph and Barb and the other Lords, of Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon. The child Digimon soon found he liked drawing, and thought this was one of the great things about having hands, it would be really tough to doodle without them.

Impmon had enough presence of mind not to tighten too hard around his stick and have it make an audible crack when a large shadow drifted over the cave entrance. He did swiftly and quietly move into a fighting stance, but his chest pounded-

The child kept his presence of mind, enough to avoid breathing a relieved sigh when the shadow left. Whatever big Digimon it was, the thing was heading someplace else.

After a minute more of nervous energy, Impmon went back to his pictures, labeling them. He could spell the names of his family and friends perfectly now.


	14. Chapter 13

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member-as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

**Notes: Thanks again for all the comments, and I hope you enjoy the latest chapter.**

Ch. 13

When Impmon realized he was talking to himself out loud, the child felt thoroughly humiliated. Still, he refused to admit at all that he was feeling a little lonely. There was just really no one to talk to, or anyone who wanted to talk with him-he would only admit to feeling too paranoid to go look for someone who would. Hell, he was getting desperate enough to almost welcome Weregarurumon's company, even his taunting-still, Impmon was too busy striking and defending and getting beat up to hold much conversation.

One day, Impmon stumbled into a thick entanglement of bushes. Once he went inside, went a certain distance and down a certain depth as the ground sloped, he found the branches arched above making roofs, and he could walk beneath them easily, and all together it was like a tunnel of leaves, a fortress of foliage he could walk through. Some areas were a cool darkness, others had patches of light dotting through the leaves.

He paused, eyes wide, when he found an egg nestled within the bushes.

It was a pink pastel color with splotches of pale green spiraling around it, and Impmon crouched down, crawling carefully toward it. His little button nose sniffed at it, and with one red gloved finger he poked at it-he reared back when it twitched slightly, enough to fall on its side. The child digimon winced at that, eyes screwed shut, then one opening up slowly, wondering if he'd find it shattered with stuff spilling out-but the egg was fine and still again.

Impmon moved closer to it again.

"Should I pick you up and set you up straight again or what?" Impmon silently told himself that he had company this time, that the baby digimon inside the egg heard him, even if it didn't have a mouth to speak with yet.

Impmon glanced around the brush caves, then lay flat on his belly, head rested on his folded arms, a little more level with the egg.

"I don't see anyone who could be your procreators-I guess you're a normal digimon, huh?" Impmon scratched at the dirt, sorta filling up the silence from the egg. "Barb said I was an a-whatscallit…anna molly, an...anomaly, that's it, he said I was an anomaly. 'Cause I was created from half Lilith's data, and half Wizardmon's, and that's different from how most every other digimon is born. Like, everyone else is their own thing, y'know? I mean, no one else really has procreators-that's Lilith and Wizardmon for me-I mean, no one else is really a mix of two other Digimon's data, and, um-well, Barb kinda lost me there, he started talking about brains and stuff and how I have an 'independent mind' unlike DNA evolutions, and I'm still not sure what those are-like, he said they were hybrids like me, but they weren't like me, he said they were temporary and had two minds but I was permanent and with one mind and-"

The child digimon blew out a frustrated breath, and fixed the egg with a hard stare.

"Lucemon just said it meant I was a freak." Looking annoyed, Impmon continued, "But he said that wasn't a bad thing. Said freaks are unique and superior and 'one of a kind.'" On that last phrase, Impmon had done an air quote with his fingers as his eyes rolled. "Said it was something to be a freak even among the Demon Lords." Impmon then completely laid his head down and sighed.

"I only have one procreator now though. I mean, one that's alive, and that's Lilith. Wizardmon's dead, and maybe if he weren't, Lilith wouldn't have ditched me here, maybe he wouldn't have let her and she'd listen to him..."

There was a growl and the earth suddenly shook, and Impmon was instantly up, his eyes narrowed and a fire lit in his glove, though he had enough presence of mind to keep it away from all the surrounding flammable foliage. There was another voice, a pained hiss, and when the ground continued to tremble, Impmon finally noticed the egg shaking along and spinning around and looking really helpless and pitiful. The child digimon instantly let his flame die out and he rushed for the egg, holding it close to his chest like how Belph did when he was smaller and Lilith and all the other Lords were going crazy with those plant digimon.

With all the trembling continuing and intensifying, Impmon didn't really think much of the egg's shaking until he heard it crack.

Horrified, he looked down at it, instinctively thinking it was breaking. Lines were running jagged spider webs all around and pieces were bulging out, shifting...

Even the sound of a defeated, dying yowl outside couldn't distract Impmon from the realization that the egg was _hatching_, and he stared down at it, awed and thrilled, wondering if he had been like this when he was little and leaving his egg too...

Swiftly and carefully, Impmon set the hatching egg on the now still floor, and watched with numb shock as another leaf burst out of the shell.

"The hell?..."

Then the rest of the baby digimon popped out, making soft cooing sounds. The large leaf was like its tail, and its whole body was a matching light green. It had two little pointed ears, flat against its round body until they popped up. He was just as appendage-less as Impmon had been before. The baby had a large pale pink nose, and above it were two black button eyes, and below those were lightly flushed cheeks.

Impmon's mouth dropped as the baby digimon's wide eyes looked around, then it hopped forward, pushing his nose against his violet fur, sniffing at him.

"Hey, hey, watch it!" Impmon snapped, shooing the baby with his glove, but not hitting it. "Some personal space, bozo!"

The baby's leaf tail twitched as his eyes stared up at him, blinking. "But my name's Leafmon."

Impmon huffed. "Well, how was I supposed to know that? I'm not a mind reader, y'know..." The older child digimon grumbled incomprehensibly a little while longer (he was annoyed-he remembered Lilith saying that Wizardmon could read minds, wondering if Lilith hoped her hybrid had inherited that skill, and if she was disappointed he hadn't).

Finally, he said, "I'm Impmon."

Leafmon hopped up and down excitedly and all over him, though Impmon managed to stay upright as he rolled his eyes. "Nice to meet you Impmon!"

"Yeah yeah," he muttered, waving an airy hand around.

The baby's leaf tilted, and he asked, "How come Lilith left you here?" Impmon stilled and went completely silent, staring at Leafmon with wide eyes. The infant digimon didn't notice, instead continuing, "And where are we, anyway?"

Impmon shook himself. "We're on an island in the middle of damn nowhere." The older child looked away, rubbing the back of his neck, shifting over the knot of his scarf. "And I guess Lilith left me here 'cause she wanted to teach me an important lesson."

"Oh." Leafmon looked down to the ground for a minute, then back up. "Wanna play a game?"

"Huh?" Well, that was sudden. "Um, yeah, sure." Impmon hadn't played a game in a while, he'd been too busy trying to not get killed.

"Ok, let's go-" and Leafmon began to look for an exit out of the bushes, and when it found a promising gap, it started to hop toward it. Immediately Impmon grabbed the infant by the stem of his leaf tail, dragging him back.

"Let's just play inside for now."

"How come?"

"'Cause you're too little to go outside right now, and I know an awesome game we can play in here."

"Ooh, what is it, what is it?"

"It's called 'drawing,' and..."

Leafmon eventually tired out quickly, though he had drawn a promising portrait of Impmon in the dirt. When the infant monster curled into Impmon's body, the older child for once felt safe-he hadn't felt like that in a while. And when Leafmon snored real loudly, Impmon found it soothing. It was a harmless noise, from a friend, someone he had to care for-not some enemy lurking in the dark hungry for his data.

Impmon slept comfortably and peacefully for the first time on the island.


	15. Chapter 14

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member-as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

**Notes: I've reloaded the last chapter with a minor edit, making it more explicit that Leafmon knew about Lilithmon because he had actually heard Impmon talk about her through his egg shell. And thank you Wesley for bringing to my attention that apparently Lilithmon will get a larger role on the TV series in the latest Digimon season. Saw the first episode of that season with subtitles on youtube, and I saw that dark figure of Lilithmon, which has me super intrigued. Again, thanks for all the comments on the last chapter, hope you enjoy this one too.**

Ch. 14

"Can't I come?"

Impmon did his best to glare down at Leafmon with fierce authority, just like Lilith would've done.

"I said 'no,' pipsqueak. Just stay here, okay? I'll be back later."

And with that, Impmon left their leafy shelter, trying to ignore the sad look the infant digimon shot him as he stepped out. He didn't need some shitty guilt weighing on him now. The older child digimon knew what he simply had to do.

He was in luck, he found a long, furry digimon with pointed ears, and a ring adorned one. She was cleaning her fur, and Impmon was in a good position, he had the higher ground. But looking down on the other creature, totally harmless at the moment, Impmon hesitated, and a new guilt flooded him, along with fear and anxiety.

It felt more pressing now with Leafmon around that he had to load another's data and get stronger; he felt responsible for the baby digimon, and didn't want to let anything happen to him...

But this other one wasn't doing anything at all, had never hurt him; she seemed to be in the same boat as him: with others attacking him, thirsting for his data, and it made his stomach sick at the thought of putting someone else in his position, knowing full well how much it sucked-

The digimon shrieked as vines speared her body, scattering her to data; Impmon just froze with shock, watching.

Then there was a loud buzzing, his first warning-he rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a point jamming into the dirt. When he got back he lighted a fire in his glove, sighted his assailant-an insect digimon as large as he, with yellow and brown stripes, four see-through wings and a lot of legs-and flung his attack. The other monster flew to the side and shot out needles at him. Impmon too dodged that, jumping into a tree and quickly climbing; he was dealing with a flier, so he figured he had to try to get higher. The insect digimon immediately pursued him, striking out-he immediately jumped from that tree to another, flinging out more fire balls. And so it went, the other digimon chasing him through the trees, both shooting fire and needles in between the wood. Impmon thought both their aiming pretty much sucked; any hits were just grazes-his fire grazed the other's wings and legs; needles grazed him, leaving shallow cuts on his arms and legs, one on his side, another on his cheek.

Until one needle pinned his glove to the bark of a tree, flying through his half-lit fire, burrowing through his skin and bone and embedding itself in the wood. (He screamed, then bit his tongue.)

Of course his own attack in that hand flickered out, and he cursed up a storm. Fortunately, Impmon had enough focus to quickly shoot out fire from his free glove; that attack, despite impalement, had clearly caught the other digimon off guard, and _that_ struck it right between the eyes, knocking it off course. Breathing shallowly, Impmon immediately tried yanking the bloody needle out of his other hand. He hissed when it stayed, the stupid thing was really freakin' stuck. He began to work more slowly and carefully, prying it out-

The flier came back, spearing the wood just where his head used to be; Impmon had managed to duck in time. He noted with a certain disquiet how ticked off the other digimon looked now, with the ugly burn on its forehead. It stabbed again and again, and he twisted around his pinned arm to avoid its point, flinging fireballs with his free hand as he did, trying to pull out the needle with his sharp teeth when he could. He dared not keep his free hand unlit now, but he had to get the stupid needle out, by his damn fangs if he had to, just had to get free...

The next time the flier stabbed into the tree instead of him, his free hand immediately wrapped around its needle, and tried to keep it stuck in the tree. Impmon's fangs turned back to the needle in his hand, and he resumed gnawing at it in earnest, struggling to get the right grip. He had to do this really super freakin' fast now.

No matter how hard the flier struggled, Impmon managed to keep its needle pinned with his one hand. Without that, the other monster had to rely on other means of attack. It struck at him with its small blunt beak and battered him with its many legs and wings. His head and the rest of him starting to really ache, Impmon just concentrated on pulling out the needle more and more.

A flash of sheer agony flashed across the whole of him when he finally yanked the damn thing out, but his whole body lurched with the rest of his head, sweeping back from the force of his teeth, the force of the dislodged needle arcing in the air. In a split second, with the needle still clenched tightly between his teeth, Impmon swung around and jabbed that damn thing straight in one of the flier's eyes. It shrieked, but even with its agonized adrenaline rush, Impmon's other hand managed to stop its needle from leaving the tree's bark. Even though his pierced hand protested, he lighted it with fire and shot out at the digimon's bloody eye and burned head again and again and again and again over its screams, shooting it again and again and again and again-

The silence was deafening as it finally burst into data, and Impmon blinked at its scattering cloud, dazed. Finally he closed his eyes and absorbed that data, with a heavy, weary exhaustion and relief. It was really weird, a funny tickle-but he really _did_ feel stronger, and he saw that his cuts were scabbing over, even his wounded hand (Daemon had said an infusion of data could sorta heal, but only to a point).

Still, Impmon wasn't sure it was much-but it was a start.

He made his way back to Leafmon in the bush.

###

Impmon initially gaped, horrified, as two really freakin' large reptilian-like digimon battled each other-almost stepping on the shelter of bushes, making the earth around it tremble.

Snapping out of it, the child digimon bolted for those bushes, slipping in between the larger monsters' stamping feet to rush through the foliage.

"Leafmon!"

"Impmon, what took you so long-?" and the infant digimon hopped out. The little guy blinked as Impmon snatched him out of mid-air and immediately dashed to the edge of the bushes with him.

"Wha-"

"Shaddup, pipsqueak," hissed Impmon as he eyed the fighting digimon outside, trying to see the direction of their dark figures through the clouds of dust they were kicking up. Impmon took a breath, then, clutching Leafmon close, he ran out, straining his ears and eyes to maneuver around the lizard digimon. The sounds of their roars and bangs rang in his ears, Leafmon starting to shudder against him, though Impmon couldn't be sure if that was because the infant was afraid or it was the intensity of the shaking ground...

When they cleared the dust, and Impmon had gone even farther than that, where the noise of battle was far behind them, the child finally stopped.

"Are you ok?" Leafmon asked, nuzzling Impmon, since the older child was gasping for air, he'd run so fast, so terrified.

"You…_idiot_," Impmon finally snarled, glaring at Leafmon. "Why the hell didn't you run-?"

"But you told me to stay."

"Not when the ground's freakin' shaking and there are two dumbasses fighting right outside who could crush you with the very first wrong step they took-"

"But you didn't say I could go if they-"

Growling, Impmon conceded in a gruff voice, "I know, I know!"

"I didn't even know those giants were out there," muttered Leafmon in a pouting voice.

Impmon sighed, considering how even if Leafmon had known, he may've been too scared to try to get past those monsters to escape; or if he had, he might've gotten crushed himself. The child then repeated, softly, "I know." In a more halting voice, he continued, "I'm sorry, I just got freaked out; I didn't want you getting hurt or..."

Impmon trailed off lamely, and Leafmon just hopped up and down happily in his lap.

"Don't worry, everything's okay now."

_Not really_, thought Impmon. Instead he voiced his other thought; "C'mon, we need to find a better hideout."

And with that, Impmon led the way, Leafmon hopping after him and babbling about a lot of stuff super fast. Impmon paid half an ear to him; he mostly regarded their surroundings warily, keeping guard.

###

Prowling out of sight, Weregarurumon watched the young Demon Lord as he travelled with the infant digimon.

It had been a close call before, but the result was gratifying-the little whelp had finally slain a foe and absorbed his data.

Now Weregarurumon felt less tense about the fact that Impmon would grow into one of his superiors eventually, gaining a little more confidence in the child.

**Notes: Digimon credits include Kudamon as the Red Shirt; Veggiemon (was so freaked out when I learned that according to the Digimon Wiki, it evolves from Floramon); FanBeemon; and that was Tyrannomon and Greymon in the end, but I figured Impmon wouldn't really focus on them at all in that scene. I've always wondered if absorbing data is also capable of somewhat healing a digimon's current injuries and renewing his energy-in this, I'm gonna say it can, to a certain extent.**


	16. Chapter 15

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member-as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

**Notes: Always, thank you to everyone for the comments, and here's hoping the latest part interests you.**

Ch. 15

Impmon and Leafmon found some caves, with a stream close by, and they stayed there for a while. It was nice.

They found pieces of chalk, and were able to put their drawings on the cave walls too. That cave drawing suitably distracted Leafmon when Impmon went out and again forbade him from leaving their shelter.

Impmon grew stronger as he went looking for fights and…'hunted' (for lack of a better word). He felt a little less guilty when he managed to absorb the data of a digimon someone else killed, and it was so freakin' easy. 'Course, if the real victor didn't run off to avoid a new, fresh competitor (Impmon hadn't worked up the nerve to chase them when they fled), he'd attack instead. Impmon would fight back then, and so far he always won those, given that besides he was more fresh for the fight, there was always the fact that he had just absorbed another's energy-and then by the end of it, he had even more.

A lot of the time Impmon returned to their makeshift home wounded, and he would gripe as Leafmon fussed over him, trying to lick his scrapes clean. Sometimes the older child would return with nuts and berries he had found. He knew he didn't need them, and neither did Leafmon-but he soon realized the infant digimon seemed to really go crazy for them, so he'd try to bring the treats back occasionally. Then Leafmon would be too distracted with savoring the tastes, and just leave him alone to lie down in peace.

(Once Impmon was tempted to tell Leafmon all about the Floramon's delicious soup-but then it choked off in his throat, the memory of Lilith and Belph and his family not a comfort then.)

"You know, we could probably find you some herbs that'll make your ouchies feel all better," said Leafmon one day, watching Impmon pick at a scab on his elbow.

The older child blinked, then folded his arms behind his head. "Not a bad idea, Pipsqueak."

"And I have a really good idea of what they'd look like," continued the infant eagerly, starting to bounce up and down.

Green eyes following the infant's hopping ascent and descent, Impmon said, with a little smirk, "Well, you're not a talking plant for nothing, huh?"

For some reason, Leafmon stopped bouncing, pouting at Impmon, who shot him a surprised blink. "Maybe, but I can't fix you all by myself, like other, bigger digimon probably could..."

Impmon was about to retort that they could not, but then he remembered the stories he'd heard of Lilymon, who had been away on mapping a sector of the world or some other mission since before he'd been born, and who had bypassed the Demon Lords' fortress when being transferred to the Floramon's village for their reconstruction efforts. Instead, he just said with a roll of his eyes, "Please, like I need their help anyway."

Leafmon's voice once again grew eager (Impmon wondered how the little guy could stand the kinds of mood swings he apparently had), saying, "I'll go and find you some right away-"

"No way, it's too dangerous outside-"

"But-"

"_I don't need your help_!" Impmon shouted, and Leafmon shrunk back, hugging the opposite cave wall. The older child digimon slumped; he hadn't meant to be that loud or sound that pissed. Sighing, he said in a smaller voice, "Look, if you want, you and me could go looking for herbs and stuff later, but there's no way you're going alone. That sound good to you?"

Shyly, Leafmon answered, "Uh huh."

"Good. Now, shut up and go to sleep, it's gettin' late,"

Impmon ordered, trying to ignore the unwelcome feeling that he was acting like Lilithmon.

###

"And then there's this-"

"Pipsqueak, I can't carry anything else," grumbled Impmon, making Leafmon freeze from yanking out another herb from the ground. He glanced at the older child digimon, noting how his arms were heavy with plant stuff already.

Still, Leafmon's tail wilted, and he said, "But it's not enough. You get beat up a lot, we hafta stock up."

Impmon's left eye twitched and his jaw clenched, feeling rather insulted, but he reigned it back, saying in a strained voice, "Then we'll just get some more later."

"Tomorrow. Before you go out by yourself again and get be-"

"Fine," said Impmon, rolling his eyes as Leafmon obediently started hopping back to their caves.

"Maybe we should weave a basket, so we could carry more stuff."

"Whatever," the older child grumbled. But they spent the next day collecting material to make a sturdy basket, and by the evening it was ready.

"Definitely tomorrow, we'll get more herbs, right?"

Impmon nodded, wincing as Leafmon applied more herbal medicine to his scratches, made from what little they had already collected.

###

They carried more herbs with their basket, and Leafmon soon led Impmon out into an open valley, with some stone pillars and smaller rocks dotting the landscape. The infant had spotted another plant there, far off.

"This'll be good for making your ouchies hurt less and help you sleep better-"

"I sleep just fine," Impmon growled, but helped Leafmon yank out the things all the same. They were at the foot of one of the pillars.

The older child's ears twitched, and his head whirled around-a data stream was heading towards them, one of too many he worked to avoid on this stupid island.

Impmon immediately grabbed Leafmon, ignoring the infant's protests, and dashed off-

"Our plants!" The infant shouted, and Impmon realized belatedly he'd dropped the basket, the whole day's bounty spilling out onto the dirt. With his luck, the data stream would suck those herbs away to another sector in this world-

Instead out popped _really_ large horned digimon from the data stream, stomping on their plants, scattering around in a rage, one rampaging straight toward them, _really_ fast-

Impmon panicked; he tossed Leafmon to the side, and he tried to follow, but the horned snout still hit him-at least he wasn't impaled on it.

He was thrown to the opposite side, against a lone boulder. The wind knocked out of him and something really hurt in his chest; it felt like a cracked rib.

"_Impmon_!"

"Back off, Pipsqueak!"

Whoever the hell he was, at least the large horned monster seemed focused only on him. It continued to charge, and Impmon rolled to the side at the last minute, ignoring the sting in his chest.

When he rolled back up, his eyes darted to Leafmon, still just staring at him, yet warily hopping around the mass of snarling dinosaur digimon running around, confused and enraged. Impmon called to him, "Run-"

"To where?" Leafmon wailed, rolling out of the way of one pounding foot.

"Back to the trees!" When Leafmon continued to hesitate, Impmon shouted, "I'll catch up-"

"_Behind you_!"

Stupidly, Impmon whirled around instead of just removing himself from getting struck anywhere in the back-an onslaught of flame had erupted from the dinosaur monster's mouth, and it was too fast, now too close to dodge-

_Okay, fire, it's just fire, I can do fire-_

Impmon threw up his hands, trying to bounce back the other digimon's flame, he figured he could manipulate the element in general, it didn't matter who tossed it at him...unless they could manipulate fire too...that was real likely...then he supposed it would be a battle of wills then, maybe-

It was a mixed success. Even with his last-minute doubts, it was a lot tougher than he thought, he'd never dealt with so much fire before and at such intensity, with such heat-he just managed to split it in half and dispel it to both sides of his body, at least only slightly singed. But that had been tiring-and the dinosaur digimon had clearly charged while he deflected the fire, since it was practically in his face-

Impmon hastily ducked, missing the horn. Instead, low to the ground, one of the monster's four feet nailed him in the chest, and the pain already in it flashed anew; the wind couldn't have been knocked out of him, because this time he shouted from the sheer agony in his chest.

Skidding in the dirt, he gasped, tried to scramble out of the way, had to get out of the way, it felt like the monster had just kicked him straight ahead, not to the side this time, he'll be trampled-

Something insistent bit his arm and pulled him away as the dinosaur digimon charged and banged into another of his herd instead. Impmon watched as those two started to fight each other instead; then he looked down, at Leafmon still biting on his arm, shivering.

"I told you to-"

Both of the young digimon jerked when an agonized scream rent the ear. They both looked, and found WereGarurumon dashing through the dissipating data of one dinosaur monster to slash through another. Some of the herd began concentrating on the higher level digimon then, but not as much as Impmon had hoped; some were still running about as if their heads were cut off, and some had sighted he and Leafmon-

"We have to go _now_!" The older child digimon shouted, shaking Leafmon off, and finally the infant monster ran off at his friend's tone. He dashed ahead, looking back occasionally with a worried look at Impmon stumbling behind him, who would always snap at him to keep his eyes up front and don't slow down.

The dinosaur digimon unoccupied with Weregarurumon's assault charged them; or the enemy monsters would cut them off with their frenzied run, their giant feet; more crazed members would start fights with each other; all the while, Impmon and Leafmon scrambled to avoid getting crushed or pierced.

And growing hopelessly more and more separated.

Leafmon was farther ahead now, Impmon lagging behind. _Stupid cracked ribs_, thought the older child, increasingly nervous about being too far from his infant companion-

His green eyes widened as a one of the rampaging dinosaur digimon blasted a large, swirling ball of fire straight for Leafmon.

_He's too far, he's too far_-Impmon immediately dug his toed feet into the ground and focused every fiber of his being and will toward deflecting that projectile, even if it was at a greater distance than last time...

Impmon exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding in a relieved, hysterical laugh as the fire ball abruptly turned at an angle away from Leafmon, long before it could reach the infant. The deflected fire ball hit another dinosaur monster instead, blasting across its eyes. Crying out and rampaging blind in a berserker rage, it ran into Leafmon's path.

The infant digimon was able to dodge everything expect the tail.

It cracked like a whip, the sound tearing into Impmon's ears, straight through his head and down his neck and into his busted chest, where it tightly squeezed his heart. Leafmon was flung far away, thudding into the ground, hard. He didn't move at all.

Everything going wildly blank in his head, the concept of his own voice or noise a foreign concept now, Impmon rushed ahead, maneuvering around all the other raging dinosaur monsters and the blinded one (the one _he_ blinded) with a hurried detachment.

Once he reached Leafmon, he curled protectively around him, gathering the infant in his arms-but freezing when the smaller digimon (_so small_) gave a pained moan. Impmon stayed still in agonized, panicked indecision-was Leafmon too hurt to be moved, would it just make things worse? But they couldn't stay here, they just couldn't...

"I-Imp-Imp-"

"Shaddup, you're tire yourself out, Pipsqueak," Impmon whispered urgently, not liking the way Leafmon's voice rattled, how quiet it was, or how his eyes were still closed, with an ugly bruise over one, and a horrible bleeding slash in between both-shit, he should stop the bleeding-

"So sleepy," the infant replied, and if they were back in their cave all normal-like Leafmon would've followed that with a yawn and-

"You can take a nap when we get back, okay?" Impmon whispered, trying to sound reassuring.

When Leafmon didn't immediately answer, he grew concerned.

"Okay?" Impmon repeated, telling himself that Leafmon was just listening to him, just conserving his energy-

"Okay?" The older child digimon tried to stop himself from trembling. "Pipsqueak, it's okay with you, right?"

Then Leafmon became light, very light-he was breaking apart in his gloves-Impmon scrambled to get a grip on him-he scrambled for the bits of data he dissolved into, clutching at them desperately, swiping through them uselessly-hunched over and clawed deep at the earth-

Impmon screamed, long and loud.

His voice finally shrank to choked sobs, hunching further over the dirt, heedless of a dark horned shadow suddenly looming over him...

**Notes: And he's dead. My maybe most detailed hint that Leafmon was doomed was based on the English dub: Impmon and Ken share the same voice actor, and Ken's partner/friend Wormmon, Leafmon's rookie/child form, does die…but don't expect this Leafmon returning like Wormmon did. In the fic, this death kinda unconsciously and slightly impacts any issues Impmon ends up having with Calumon, Ai and Mako and any other very young children like that, digimon or human. Credits include a herd of Monochromon. Maybe I should drop trying to see it from Impmon's perspective and assuming he wouldn't know the exact names of digimon that are new to him, and just sorta slip more into 3rd person and just refer to them by their given name?**


	17. Chapter 16

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member-as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

**Notes: Again, thanks for all the reviews, and for sticking with this fic.**

Ch. 16

WereGarurumon cursed himself.

The herd of Monochromon were a level lower than he, but what they lacked in power individually they made up for in numbers and furious adrenaline. Not to mention that his attention was divided between the fight and trying to find Impmon. To his shame, the crowd of Monochromon had managed to separate him from the child, and worrying over him wasn't helping him kill these enemies any faster...

Finally he caught up with the young Demon Lord, stabbing through the head of a Monochromon that was just about to stomp on the child. But WereGarurumon had seen Impmon's infant companion disperse into data before that.

Now circling around Impmon, WereGarurumon cut down any Monochromon that came near. Finally there were a few left, and those fled. The warrior digimon's first instinct was to quickly chase them down and slay them before they could continue to be a threat, but he paused, looking back at Impmon. The child remained crouched in the dirt, very still, silent. His head was down, his violet ears limp and drooping.

WereGarurumon was at a loss, and deeply frustrated. When he had caught up to his charge and guarded him more closely, it hadn't escaped his attention then how he hadn't reacted at all, hadn't fought back-but WereGarurumon knew he was being unfair on that account, the child digimon was clearly in shock. Still, this was a part of life any one of their people had to learn and face and continue on-especially for a young Demon Lord who should grow into a higher authority. And right now, he looked defeated, and WereGarurumon wasn't sure if he should give him any time at all to either wallow in or process the loss.

He had to snap him out of it. Growling, the wolf digimon approached the child, trying to get his attention. When he continued to not react, WereGarurmon's growling grew, from both anger and a desire to grab the other monster's attention.

Still, Impmon didn't raise his head.

WereGarurumon also had to admit that, although he was fulfilling his duty so far, he felt a twinge of guilt over his inability to save the infant digimon. That Leafmon had never been his priority, and perhaps that mind set had allowed its loss-but still the wolf digimon felt some regret over that. That shred of remorse was only growing as he realized the harmful effect it was having on his young ward.

When WereGarurumon towered over Impmon-his shadow enveloping the other's small body-and he still did not react, the wolf digimon finally snapped, grabbing the child by the throat and hauling him up, eye to eye.

Desolate green eyes stared back at him. Fortunately, some fire sparked in them as they shifted slightly into a glare. "What do you want?" Impmon's voice was low, raspy.

WereGarurumon had to remember his cover story as well. Avoiding an answer, he flicked his arm out, throwing Impmon hard into one of the valley's stone pillars. To his growing frustration, when the child bounced off and crashed to the ground, he stayed down, and the wolf digimon knew Impmon was still conscious, he could see his half-lidded green eyes. It was utterly unlike their previous encounters; the child digimon typically struggled stubbornly to get up, only to succumb to his injuries and spent energy. Now, he didn't even seem to be trying...

More alarmed than frustrated, WereGarurmon tried to disguise that anxiety, snarling, "Get up."

"Leave me alone," muttered Impmon, in a tired voice, and sounding vaguely bored, as if very far away.

"Fight me." (Would this make Impmon suspect? Hopefully the child was too out of it now and wouldn't analyze this moment later, before the Demon Lord of Lust arrived.)

"If you're gonna kill me, just get it over with." WereGarurumon's alarm increased; Impmon hadn't even sounded defiant.

Trying to seem calm and more detached than he actually was, he made a show of curiously tilting his head, and asked, "Do you _want_ to die?"

When so much silence stretched on that WereGarurumon thought the child would ignore him-or worse, that was a 'yes'- Impmon whispered in a very soft, thin voice, "I…I don't wanna die…I don't-I won't die, I _won't_-"

Now the child's voice sounded choked with tears.

Perhaps against his better judgment regarding his mission, WereGarurumon retreated to a nearby pillar and stood vigil over the young lord.

He watched as Impmon eventually picked himself off and slowly made his way back to the forest, looking so very alone. When he disappeared into the trees, WereGarurmon followed, tracking him.

All the while, he thought about another source of frustration-the frenzied, crazed, rampaging confusion of the Monochromon, with a hint of terrified hysteria and fury. Was it just the shock of the data stream suddenly transporting them somewhere else? It sometimes happened, though most digimon simply grew used to that fact of the world. Disturbingly, it was not unlike some other digimon reactions he and his team had observed when investigating the sentient magenta substance deep in the canyons…the sooner he got back to investigating that stranger substance, the better.

###

Walking further and further away from the caves' direction, Impmon stopped at the base of a tree and laid under the roots that arched way up. (He never wanted to see those caves again.)

Laying on the ground, staring up at the roots above him, and all the trees, the stars peeking out, until they narrowed to a pinprick and his eyes drifted shut.

Impmon later woke up with a start, heart trying to beat its way out of his broken ribs.

In the dream, he never deflected the fire that blinded the other horned monster-he'd lit Leafmon on fire by his own hand, and the infant had screamed, asking why, _why_ did Impmon kill him, weren't they friends?...

The child digimon stayed wide awake the rest of the night.

(Why, why, _why_ had he let them go into the open like that, how he could he be so damned stupid? And now his friend was gone forever, he'd never grow up to be a big digimon that could heal anything with a single touch of his, or laugh again, or pout, or draw pictures in the dirt or on cave walls, he'd never do anything ever again and it was all _his_ fault...)

###

Things seemed to pass by in a blur for Impmon afterward.

He simply wandered around, aimless. Waited to be attacked, either by WereGarurumon or someone else. When he and WereGarurumon did fight, he never spoke anymore, never hurled insults at the wolf digimon, who also dropped his taunts. Impmon wasn't speaking at all. There wasn't really any one to talk to anymore. He didn't even speak out loud to himself now.

Once, he stalked a digimon, some kind of bird one. He had watched it real closely, tried to figure out its patterns. Soon, he found himself looming over its perch in the trees. He leapt quickly-the bird monster made some noise-he had already materialized a small piece of cold, hard, sharp ice that fit neatly into his glove, and he slit it deep across its throat-while he cut, he saw its eyes, wide and shocked and so very afraid-saw that emotion fade from it, along with the rest of the light...

When it dissipated into raw data, he absorbed it like clockwork. For all the energy and power he gained, he still felt empty-and now suddenly sick to his stomach. He leaned over the branch and retched out something wet and translucent. Impmon stiffly fell back against the trunk of the tree, jerkily wiping his mouth clean with his arm.

He didn't want to be weak anymore, Leafmon had died because he was too weak, but that digimon had done _nothing_ to him. And he had just ambushed it out of nowhere and it was just like Leafmon too, undeserving-

But hadn't he been too weak because he held back before? Because he couldn't work up the nerve to go all the way to the best of his ability? And then he couldn't defend Leafmon, someone so much younger than he, who had depended on him, trusted him-

What were those other digimon to him, anyway? Nothing, he knew none of them, none at all. Leafmon he knew, had cherished-if he had attacked and ambushed digimon he didn't even know to become strong enough to protect Leafmon, that would have been worth it, wouldn't it?

But still, to attack someone who had never harmed him-and it was too late now for Leafmon, all too late-but if he had been more ruthless before, if he had, maybe his friend wouldn't have-

Impmon gripped his head and bent into his knees, breathing harshly.

This was too confusing, all too much, he couldn't take it-what should he do? What the hell was he supposed to do?

What would Lilith do?

Thinking about that didn't make Impmon feel any better.

**Notes: It's supposed to be an eerie prequel echo to Impmon/Beezlemon completely going off the deep end in canon. The short conversation between WereGarurumon and Impmon was pretty much lifted word for word from the "Fullmetal Alchemist" manga. Another hint of the D-Reaper (this will go somewhere eventually in the prequel, besides the obvious result in canon).**

**Also, self advert—just posted up a Digimon Tamers/Lost crossover (one-shot?) fic called "so much for childhood dreams." I love Impmon with the twins, but I do like switching his partnership around with characters from other fandoms—hence, the crossover, where he has a key role. The fic was originally written for the Lost (ficfest) Luau at the livejournal community lostsquee, so it's written more from a Lost perspective discovering the Digimon world, and an outsider's POV on Impmon's character (remixing the fic from Impmon's POV would be interesting to do). So if you check it out, use the Lost wiki or google Lost and its Lost characters mentioned for images and more information—mainly, Juliet, Richard, Ben, Alex, Danielle, Tom Friendly, the Smoke Monster, etc. Also, off the top of my head, I suggest spookybelle on deviantart for more graphic/hand-drawn representations of some of those characters, if that helps further mix the worlds for reading crossover. Hope you like it.**


	18. Chapter 17

Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member-as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

**Notes: Been distracted with RL (of course) and another fandom—started making fanfic for Disney's animated "Beauty and the Beast." Such a good movie!**

Ch. 17

Lilithmon was anxious to return for her hybrid the second her assigned time limit had passed. (Longing, she'd grudgingly admit to; guilt, never.)

She was searching the island now. There were times when digimon sensed her power, and stayed clear-this was one of those times.

Lilith also kept an eye out for WereGarurumon, but she was more interested in finding Yaamon first, or more likely a slightly older digimon that resembled him.

Finally she found him in a small clearing in the forest. Lilith was simply positive it was him-his head didn't look much different from when he was an infant, but then he turned and she saw the crisp whiteness of his face and his button nose. She was instantly reminded of her own appearance as Gatomon then-even more so when she noticed he wore gloves too (though they were a gaudy red) and while he was a fairly average-sized rookie level monster, he was also close to the proportions of her admittedly small champion form. Already Lilith knew Barbamon would overanalyze those minor similarities (not unlike what she just foolishly entertained—and of course, his green eyes remained the same, constantly reminding her of Wizardmon).

Her now fully grown child was facing off against a Veggiemon (even she could appreciate the irony of how that monster's previous form was a Floramon, though she imagined her hybrid would not feel the same). Her first instinct was to reveal herself and instantly crush the thing, but she stayed put. This was the whole point after all, to get him fending for himself more through survival training, even if she had sent WereGarurumon for insurance. If things got out of hand, she would intervene, unless her subordinate wasn't already-ah, there he was; Lilithmon's experienced eyes found her warrior lurking in the trees, watching the child, and herself (Lilith hadn't exactly planned on hiding, and only concealed herself now so that her hybrid didn't notice, but of course WereGarurumon would sense his own superior-Lilith wanted a captain that skilled).

Either way, Lilith concluded it wouldn't come to an intervention. The Veggiemon looked exhausted, more so than her hybrid; and she wondered if the child had cornered him when he was already weakened from another fight.

Her hybrid swiftly dodged the other monster's vines, dashing toward it until he was up in its face, and he blasted flame. His enemy still struggled and her hybrid wasn't unscathed, but soon it was completely on fire, and it broke apart into data, only a dark ash smear left in the dirt.

Lilithmon silently watched as her child absorbed the energy. Then when he was done, she stepped forward, not even paying attention to the twig her foot snapped.

The young Demon Lord of Gluttony immediately whirled around, a fire already lit in his hands-but that sputtered out when he realized who was there.

He looked at her with wide eyes, his mouth gaping, and Lilith instinctively counted how many small fangs he now had. She also prepared herself for his shouting and insults and questions and simple anger from him, she'd been expecting that for months when imagining her return for him...

Instead he bit his lip, his eyes starting to water; then he rushed forward, burying his face in her skirt and clutching at it, twisting the fabric in his three-fingered hands.

Dumbfounded, Lilith stiffly patted her non-Nazar hand on the back of his quivering head (his whole body was trembling). Then that hand relaxed, ruffling his fur slowly, gently (she realized it was a deeper violet now). Finally he stilled and stepped away slightly, wiping his eyes with the back of his hands, and sniffling (but Lilith noticed that her skirt wasn't that wet and that there weren't deep watery tracks down her child's cheeks, so he clearly restrained himself more than she thought).

"You came back," he said, dazed.

"I told you I would," she reminded him pointedly. Then she made a show of looking him over, and said, "You've grown handsomely, my dear."

Her hybrid blushed, self-consciously glancing at all the scratches and bruises he bore and the general unkemptness of his fur (but in Lilith's eyes, all that mattered was that he had evolved, and had won a fight and taken another's data in front of her own eyes, and generally had the air of a more seasoned rookie warrior).

"What do I call you now?"

"Oh, um, it's Impmon now."

"Impmon," she said, trying out the name on her tongue. "Impmon, I do believe that was a champion level."

Lilith's smirk made her hybrid blush harder with pleasure at the touch of pride he heard in her voice. He replied, looking down at his feet, "It was a three-way fight before. I kept my head down, he got the other guy, and when he was tuckered out, I got him."

Lilith gently took his chin, tilting it up. "Very good, my dear."

Impmon jerked away when he heard WereGarurumon approach. Lilithmon raised her eyebrows, rather amused when Impmon snarled and lit fire balls in his hand, standing protectively in front of her. He snapped at the wolf digimon, "What the hell do you want now?"

Ignoring the child's anger, WereGarurumon instead bowed before him and Lilith, saying, "Welcome back, My Lady."

"Thank you, Captain, for guarding my child."

"Of course, Lord Lilithmon."

Impmon's attack had long since flickered out, and his green eyes snapped back and forth between the two.

"Wait, what-you know this guy? He works for you? He was _guarding_ me?"

Turning back to Impmon with a brow arched, Lilith answered, "Of course. I couldn't chance the possibility that you might fail and actually die, so I sent him to keep an eye on you."

"He tried to _kill_ me!"

"Did he really?"

Impmon was about to snap, "Hell yes!"-but then he thought about his own conclusions that WereGarurumon was just toying with him whenever he apparently let him live; and realized that maybe WereGarurumon showing up to mow down other monsters that were attacking him wasn't just him being all blood-thirsty and possessive…but still-

"He beat me to a pulp!" The child insisted, stabbing an accusing finger at the wolf digimon, who persisted in gracefully ignoring him.

"Frankly, the type of training I demand for you to endure is more than strenuous."

Impmon looked fit to burst-but he bit back the very strong urge to curse both his procreator and his so-called bodyguard out, and instead huffed and folded his arms, refusing to look at either of them.

Glancing at WereGarurumon, Lilith asked, "Will you accompany us, Captain?"

The wolf digimon shook his head. "No my Lady, I will guard your flank and meet you back at the fortress later."

Lilith read between the lines for his real message, and she wasn't sure what to think when apparently WereGarurumon thought she needed alone time with her hybrid.

But she did not push the matter; she simply nodded to her superior, and then knelt down besides a still pouting Impmon. She softly placed a hand on one particularly swollen cheek. "Come-Belphemon and the rest have missed you, along with most of our subordinates." _It's been far too quiet at the fortress_, she silently thought, but was not about to say that out loud. "Lilymon is there. You can finally meet her, and she will heal all your wounds."

Stiffly, Impmon nodded, still trying to look indignant, but he scrambled quickly and eagerly onto her back, in between her wings and wrapping his arms around her neck.

"See you soon, Captain," Lilithmon said to WereGarurumon, who nodded back. The wolf digimon ignored the tongue Impmon stuck out at him.

Lilith then manipulated a data stream for home, and they were off.

###

Impmon had of course been pissed at his procreator, feeling utterly betrayed (_feeling like it was his fault, he failed, he drove his procreator away_)-but he still desperately clung to her promise that she'd be back.

After Leafmon died, he began to doubt her words-but instead of his anger growing with her, he just grew bleaker, giving up. He couldn't help but be overwhelmed with sheer shock and relief and longing when his procreator did return for him.

And even the smallest hint of pride she showed him was something, Impmon wanted so desperately to make her proud, to convince her that he wasn't a worthless nothing...

But it made him sick to his stomach to know that he _was_; with his failure to protect Leafmon, he realized Lilith was completely right about some things. Deep down, he felt he didn't even deserve scraps of pride from her-but still _she_ gave them, so maybe he wasn't completely hopeless, his procreator had fairly good judgment, she had to, she just had to...

Impmon clung tighter to Lilith's neck. He just wanted to go home, he just wanted his procreator to value him, to not just be the disappointing remnant of her closet friend, Wizardmon, nothing but a poor replacement-

Impmon's heart felt a little lighter when the familiar fortress came into view.

**Notes: Leave it to fic to make Impmon more screwed up. I was actually a little freaked out when I learned on a digimon wiki that Floramon can evolve into Veggiemon, and decided it had to be used. Anyway, comments and questions are always appreciated—I do love seeing that review alert in my inbox.**


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